


Rebels and Serpents

by importantgalaxydefendor



Category: VIXX
Genre: M/M, dragon!AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2018-04-12 05:33:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4467266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/importantgalaxydefendor/pseuds/importantgalaxydefendor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where dragons and humans coexist, Hakyeon is a dragon trainer and Taekwoon is a dragon. This is going to be Hakyeon's biggest challenge yet. </p><p>Overall rating for the fic is M in general but this will vary from chapter to chapter as the story progresses. There is NC-17 content, but not in every chapter.</p><p>Not really looking for crits; this is just for fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of Stories and Dragons

For as long as anyone could remember humans and dragons coexisted. It wasn't always peaceful, and it wasn't always bloody, but somewhere along the line things worked themselves out into just enough of a balance. Humans didn't constantly try to enslave or slaughter the dragons, capturing and breeding only what they needed, and in turn the dragons didn't attempt to burn every city and eat every human they came across. It worked, for the most part.

Hakyeon was in the capital to attend the biggest gathering of dragon trainers, breeders, and related merchants who got together every year- a convention of sorts. Only instead of attending as a regular trainer, just to browse the wares and network with other trainers as he normally did, Hakyeon was attending this year's convention to run a workshop. Over the last couple years Hakyeon had made quite the name for himself as a trainer, having famously bested and trained an albino arctic dragon—one of the most difficult breeds of dragons to find, never mind train—before releasing it back into the wild. A stupid choice, according to many, but training such a challenging dragon was enough to prove his worth, even if he didn't keep it or sell it for profit. 

The convention lasted a week at most, with most festivities peaking around four days in. Many people who were not even trainers nor licensed to handle dragons in any capacity attended the convention simply to get a chance to see the creatures up close. And lucky Hakyeon's workshop was scheduled on the busiest of all convention days. He had no idea how people way back when dealt with this sort of event; all he could think about was how hot and sticky it was trying to push through crowds of people even in the climate controlled air of the convention center. It was because of these crowds that Hakyeon ended up late to his own workshop. 

“What took you so long?” Wonshik, Hakyeon's training partner, hissed in Hakyeon's ear when he finally entered the room, and grabbed Hakyeon's elbow to lead him up front. “There's only so many dragon related puns I can tell these people; you better hurry up and get this started.” 

Hakyeon curled his lip at Wonshik, but his friend was right. He could always swat at the younger man later for whatever awful puns Hakyeon was sure Wonshik had subjected the audience to. As he turned to face the audience, Hakyeon pulled up a bright smile. He had quite an open and friendly disposition, if he did say so himself, and he liked to think it gave him a leg up in a profession where having people on your good side was a necessity. 

“Sorry I've kept you all waiting! I'm sure you've all seen just how many people are here today and wow, what a turnout!”

“Can you tell us about the arctic dragon?” A voice rang out from the back of the room, and caused Hakyeon to sigh to himself. He didn't know how many times he had already recounted the story just this day alone simply to correct facts and combat rumors, never mind just straight storytelling. 

“I can open up the floor to questions at the end, but this workshop is mainly supposed to focus on how to get started, not on my personal—” 

He stopped himself, pausing briefly while looking out over the crowd. Just given by the look of the people in front of him Hakyeon could tell that the majority of them were all residents of the capital. Everyone was dressed just a little too nice, a little too done up to be apprentice trainers or training school hopefuls. The distinct lack of burns and other injuries among the crowd was very telling. Hakyeon sighed. “Alright, fine.” And with a deep breath began to recount his tale. 

It was a story Hakyeon quite enjoyed telling really, though he thought that maybe he might have been able to get away with not having to tell it for an hour just once over the course of the week, but once he was in story-mode Hakyeon threw himself all in. He could feel Wonshik's eyes on him from the side of the room where his partner was leaning, arms folded and head shaking. Wonshik knew how theatrical Hakyeon could get, but right now Hakyeon didn't care.

The story was told in big, grand gestures as Hakyeon was wont to do (being quite fond of talking and embellishing his words with his hands) with Wonshik shaking his head all the while. But when they reached his favorite part, Hakyeon dropped his voice to a low stage whisper. “And everyone knows that arctic dragons prefer their food to be frozen. I was still alive, so clearly not frozen, and the dragon began to dig a hole out in the ice with his claws, intent on sticking me in it and eating me later when I was.” The people in the audience were sitting on the edge of their seats, some of the younger kids even leaning forward as if trying to hear him better, and Hakyeon smiled widely. 

“So he goes to pick me up and I summon all the energy I have left to ask him for just one chance to solve a logic puzzle. Arctic dragons are the smartest of all the dragons and cannot resist challenges, and I guess because he thought I was going to be dead soon anyway he would chance my winning the challenge and escaping. He picked me up and brought me closer so we could be eye level—dragons need to look you in the eye to issue a magically binding challenge—and when he did, wham!” 

A decent sized but quick burning fireball exploded into existence just to Hakyeon's left, and the audience collectively yelped and jumped. The entire time he had been telling the story, Hakyeon had been surreptitiously fiddling with the contents of the bag at his hip, kept in place by a strap around his torso, in order to pull out one of his smaller fire spheres to accentuate the story. It only scorched the carpet _a little bit_.

“I hit him in the face with a fire sphere! It caused him to drop me, and I was able to get a good distance between us to incapacitate him enough to subdue him properly. From there it was just the same as with any other dragon. Make them submit to training. Train for whatever purpose you think would suit the dragon best.” Hakyeon shrugged as if it were no big deal, and that people trained albino arctic dragons everyday like it was nothing. The crowd applauded, and while he was used to praise from his fellow trainers and other dragon-working folk, applause from a group of civilians was a new one. Hakyeon went a little red around the ears, but he ate up the attention. 

–

“You know, someone is bound to find out someday.” Wonshik shook his head as he trailed after Hakyeon through the dealer's center. Hakyeon very cheerfully ignored him, so Wonshik poked him in the small of his back. “What will you do then? You can't keep on like this forever. Too many holes in that story.” 

Hakyeon glanced over his shoulder at Wonshik and smiled cheerfully, but his eyes were shooting daggers at his partner. “Shut up please,” he said in a hushed tone, and waved a hand dismissively at Wonshik. “Let's just see what there is for sale, mhm? Maybe we'll find some toothless old brass dragon you can practice with.” He didn't bother to wait to see what sort of face Wonshik made at him for that before stalking back off through the crowds of people lining the pathways through the rows of booths and merchants.

The dragons and the owners/breeders offering them for sale were usually kept in back and out of the way of the rest of the selling area. There were staff members in place to make sure there weren't too many people in the browsing area at the same time, lest it upset some of the more skittish dragons. And when dealing with large creatures that could use magic, breathe fire, lightning, or poison gas, it just wasn't something the convention staff wanted to risk. Everyone had to sign a waiver to go in, even just to browse. And only trainers that had preregistered and applied for buying licenses could purchase any of the dragons. Hakyeon got a license as he did every year, but he never bought anything. It was a just in case measure more than anything else.

The available dragons themselves were all standard fare, set into groups by color and broken down into specific breeds from there. In general blue dragons were from the desert and breathed lightning, with their large single horned snouts and frilled ears, were best used as trackers when trained properly. The green dragons were from the forests and among them had the more belligerent of breeds. The smaller ones were best used for hunting and tracking as well, but it wasn't advisable to keep adults, even trained. They reeked of chlorine and breathed poison gas, and had many horns on their heads and down the length of their spines. Red dragons were the most common. They breathed fire and loved shiny things. When trained, they were the best dragons to use for guarding property or objects. 

Metallic dragons tended to be easier to work with and there was an abundance of them available. Brass dragons were the most friendly, they were very talkative and helpful in general with whatever task was put before them. They were usually found inhabiting caves in the northeastern part of the country, a mountainous and rocky area. Bronze dragons were morally just. Usually found on tropical islands or warm coastal areas, bronze dragons lived near deep water. Their scales were flat compared to other dragon breeds, and they had webbing between their toes and behind their limbs. These dragons and their trainers usually worked for or with law enforcement. Copper dragons were much like brass dragons in that they tended to share habitats and had similar personalities, however the copper dragons were much more playful and mischievous compared to brass dragons.

There were a small handful of dragons not represented at the convention for a number of reasons. It was illegal to capture and train black dragons. Black dragons inhabited swamps and jungles, and spit a caustic acid; it was better to avoid them entirely. White dragons—like Hakyeon's albino arctic dragon—were only found on the southern most continent on the planet. It was too warm for them to live anywhere else. They could do so, but they were never quite happy about it. Silver dragons spent most of their time in the sky, and didn't enjoy living on the ground. They were quite the non-violent type and avoided conflict at every turn. The skies were safer for them. And gold dragons tended to make their lairs in very secluded areas; no one had ever really seen one up close, but enough people had at a distance to at least confirm their existence.

With all of this in the back of his mind, Hakyeon and Wonshik walked up and down the rows of cages, peering into each one by one. The majority of the dragons that were in the center today were all babies, kept in smaller cages and stacked two high. It was much safer to keep the smaller dragons inside than it was the bigger ones, even if they were trained. At least the babies could only spark instead of really set anything on fire, even if they tried. Every once and again they came across a larger cage with an adolescent dragon inside, but still nothing that really struck Hakyeon's fancy. 

“I'm going outside,” Hakyeon declared when they approached the large open door that led to the fenced off area outside where the adult dragons were kept. Wonshik waved him away, continuing off down the aisle they had already been in. Gleefully, Hakyeon skittered outside. 

From where he was now Hakyeon could hear the small but vocal group of protesters from out front of the center, being held back by a barrier of cops and several law enforcement dragons patrolling between them and the convention goers. He was sure they had gone through the proper channels to set up their protest and that the police were there mainly just to make sure everyone stayed safe. The protesters came every year and no one had gotten hurt yet, and Hakyeon barely ever thought about why there were protests in the first place because what they were protesting was something he didn't often see.

All dragons had human forms. They grew into the ability to shape shift as adolescents and generally perfected it around the time they were three hundred years old. Some dragons rarely shifted, if ever, and others lived exclusively in their human forms when they could get away with it. Most dragons were a mix of somewhere in between, only using their shifting ability as a form of protection for themselves. Dragons who spent a lot of time with humans had an easier time blending in, but there were still small things that gave them away. 

The protesters considered keeping and training dragons a form of cruelty; they had human forms, would humans do that to other humans? But that was a whole political thing that Hakyeon didn't want to get into. 

The adult dragons outside were roughly the same stock as the babies caged inside. That is, Hakyeon didn't see anything that struck him as particularly special—there was a red volcano serpent that was smoldering beautifully—but nothing at all that seemed worthy of purchase. Hakyeon traveled around too much as it was anyway and he wasn't sure he and Wonshik were equipped financially to keep a dragon full time. Hakyeon trained the dragons and then sold them to continue funding his way around the world in order to train more dragons. There wasn't too much money to be had in it unless he wanted to settle down somewhere permanently. But he was still young and that idea wasn't appealing just yet. 

He had been just about to cycle back into the center and go hunt down Wonshik when a cage at the far end of the fenced off area caught his attention. It was smaller than those that contained the full size adult dragons, and the only reason Hakyeon could see for that was because the dragon inside was actually in its human form. 

Curiously, Hakyeon approached and stopped just outside the roped off area that indicated the minimum safe distance for him to be from the cage. The dragon was male, with wide shoulders and was obviously well muscled. His head was tilted down a fraction, and Hakyeon could see the fullness of his cheeks and his dark hair falling into his eyes. “Hey,” he murmured at the dragon, who glanced up at him briefly, eyes flashing a solid yellow with no pupil for a fraction of a second before he turned away again. After getting a halfway decent look at his face, Hakyeon could tell that this dragon's human form was definitely attractive by general human standards.

He lingered too long, and the merchant for this particular row of dragons had hurriedly made his way over when he saw who it was Hakyeon had stopped to inspect. “Sir!” The merchant called, and Hakyeon showed him the buying license he had tucked behind his badge just so the man wouldn't shoo him away right off the bat. 

“Why isn't he in a bigger cage so he isn't forced to sit there in this form? This cage is much too small for an adolescent, never mind an adult.” Hakyeon asked, giving the merchant what he hoped was a good stare-down. 

But the man seemed largely unaffected. “His choice, sir, his choice. Nothing I can say or do will convince him otherwise. We don't even know what kind of dragon he is. Never seen him in any form but this one. Wouldn't have ever thought he was a dragon if it weren't for his eyes giving him away.” 

Now this was a curious thing, and Hakyeon turned back to the dragon with his eyebrows raised, looking for some sort of confirmation that didn't come. “How did you come about him?” He asked the merchant, turning his head just enough to address the man, but keeping his gaze on the dragon. 

“Acquired him when a nearby breeder back home retired. Had this dragon for fifty years she said, and she got him from another who apparently had him for a good thirty five, maybe forty years before that. No one knows the truth because he won't talk, so everyone is pretty sure he's one of them brown rock dragons from up north.” Brown dragons were the most “animal” like of all dragons, and were not well suited to any sort of training or work; they didn't take direction well and couldn't speak very much, if at all. “But the story goes he showed up to a clinic one day just like this, with another dragon in human form. A female. She looked like she got attacked and was bleeding out pretty heavily, and there wasn't much they could do to save her. I guess she didn't have enough magic left to shift back to heal and she passed. The owner of the clinic kept this one for who knows how long before he started getting passed around.” 

Hakyeon quirked an eyebrow at this story, but nodded along politely none the less. He was sure it was a fabrication to get buyers more interested in what otherwise might be a completely worthless dragon, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. “So why are you selling him?” 

The man spread his arms wide, motioning at the rest of his stock; mainly metallic dragons. “I am a breeder, sir, and I need to turn a profit. It does not do me any good to keep a dragon who cannot be trained, and just sits by taking up resources.” 

“How much?” Hakyeon demanded immediately. For whatever reason, this man's attitude towards this dragon just rubbed him the wrong way. And if that story was true that just made things infinitely worse. Why did all those other breeders simply keep an obviously unhappy and untrainable dragon for _years_ if he was just taking up resources? Most breeders would have paid a trainer to take him back to the wild, out to a suitable location for whatever dragon type he was. 

The man wanted far too much for the dragon, citing he needed to make up for the money he had already put into feeding and housing the poor creature. But Hakyeon talked him down as best he could and a deal was struck. The dragon's cage was tagged with a sold sticker and Hakyeon's info, and he was to be delivered to Hakyeon's accommodations by the end of the convention week. Gold changed hands and Hakyeon headed off back towards the convention center proper, only to stop just before he stepped inside. He turned and looked over his shoulder at the dragon, and he found the dragon was looking back, watching him. His eyes flashed yellow once more, something Hakyeon could see even from this distance, but the dragon didn't waiver. Hakyeon was the first to turn away, heading off in a hurry. It was a little unnerving now that the dragon was staring at him so intently, when before he wouldn't look at Hakyeon at all. 

Inside the center proper, Hakyeon pulled out his phone and quickly shot off a message to Wonshik, detailing where he was and requested Wonshik come join him. He might have left out just one tiny detail, however. 

Hakyeon now had his very own dragon.


	2. On The Road

“We don't have anywhere to _keep_ him,” Wonshik complained as he trailed after Hakyeon down the hall of the motel they had been staying at, his hands thrown wide in exasperation. Hakyeon often did things without thinking that led to all sorts of fun consequences. Like that one time he got Wonshik's eyebrows singed off. Wonshik was still a little angry about that and he swore his right one never grew back the way it looked beforehand. 

“I couldn't just leave him there! He's been in captivity likely over a hundred years and if that merchant was to be believed at all he's been in his human form the entire time. Aren't you the least bit curious?” Hakyeon turned in order to bat his eyelashes at his friend, a silly tactic that usually got Wonshik to at least drop the topic for the time being. 

It worked well enough, and Wonshik only sighed as they reached the tiny room the both of them were staying in. Hakyeon—ever concerned with saving money where he could with the exception of impulse dragon purchases apparently—usually only booked them a single room with a bed to share. A bed that Wonshik was looking forward into falling onto and spreading out on now that the convention had closed. Maybe he'd even knee Hakyeon in the kidneys later for good measure. “Just... go figure out what you're going to do with him.” He sighed before slipping into their room and closing the door behind him. 

All Hakyeon wanted was a shower and to lay down as well, but Wonshik did have a point. They really didn't have the proper equipment to travel with an untrained dragon full time, and even if they did, they weren't sure what type of dragon he was. For all Hakyeon knew the new dragon was yellow, and, hypothetically, depending on where he was from originally the dragon could fall under the red dragon umbrella, or the green. Even if they had all the red dragon equipment in the world it wasn't going to help Hakyeon and Wonshik if the new dragon was a green sub-breed. 

Heading outside to the motel courtyard, the space allocated to the guests to keep any dragons accompanying them, Hakyeon ran a hand through his hair and sighed to himself. He approached the cage and was unsurprised to see the dragon exactly where he left him, sitting in the middle of his cage in human form- a position that he didn't appear to move from much. Not that there was much room to move about the cage anyway, which was something Hakyeon planned on changing. Somehow. He felt awful for the poor creature but he definitely had not thought this through all the way. But he didn't regret buying him.

“Hey,” Hakyeon greeted the dragon in a soft voice. The dragon glanced up at him, eyes offering a flash of recognition, only to quickly dart away again to fixate on the grass rustling in the breeze just outside of his cage. Hakyeon sighed again and stepped closer, reaching for the plastic sachet of information and paperwork attached to the side of the cage. He didn't have any time before this to really go through it as thoroughly as he would have liked with the convention still going on. But given that they were gearing up to leave the next day, now was a good a time as any. 

A lot of the fill-in boxes on the forms were blank, and what little that was filled in all had question marks scribbled next to them. Hakyeon had truly purchased a mystery. The only thing he could surmise just from looking at the dragon was that he was a minimum of three hundred years old, if not older, given how how well he could maintain his human form. Everything else was merely a guess. But looking at his paperwork finally answered one question he had been wondering. 

The clinic doctor who originally kept the dragon did so simply because of the dragon's odd behavior. There was a copy of the doctor's original handwritten notes included in the paperwork, in which he hypothesized that the dragon refused to change back to his regular form initially because he was grieving but also because he was probably something rare and wanted to avoid being kept. Now Hakyeon could see why everyone else who had kept this dragon over the years had done so—no one wanted to be the person who passed up a super rare dragon, even an unknown, untrained one.

Hakyeon didn't condone the behavior, but greed was part of human nature, so he was unsurprised. He turned back to the first page of the paperwork and glanced down at the first box. “Leo?” He asked, looking to the dragon for confirmation. The dragon lifted his head and as if on cue his eyes flashed solid yellow when he turned to glance at Hakyeon. “They've been calling you Leo, haven't they?” 

There was just a barely perceptible nod when their eyes met for a fraction of a second once more. It was so fast that Hakyeon wasn't sure whether or not he had imagined it, but it was on the form and Leo didn't seem to hate it, so Leo it was. 

“Leo,” Hakyeon murmured again to himself as he looked back down at his paperwork. Now there was one more thing he was certain of—Leo definitely wasn't a dumb brown rocky mountain dragon from the north. Hakyeon clucked his tongue. 

–

Hakyeon knew when he made arrangements for their journey to the other side of the country that Wonshik wouldn't be happy with how he had to finagle things to include their new dragon, but he hadn't expected his partner to be this opposed to the idea. 

“He can't ride in the van, Hakyeon.” Wonshik was waving his arms, flailing really, and that little vein on his temple was bulging magnificently. If Wonshik wasn't currently yelling at him specifically Hakyeon probably would have found this comical. “There's a reason for the transport laws!” 

Well trained and tame dragons just didn't try to break out of their cages to escape or rampage but not every dragon was well trained or tame. Cages and dragon transport trailers legally had to be magically reinforced to prevent the dragon from breaking out. These items were not cheap, however, and paying for the additional spellwork always drove the cost up. Some trainers and breeders also employed cages or trailers that were much too small for a dragon's proper form, to ensure that the dragon didn't switch from their human form to their dragon form mid-trip. A magically reinforced transport wouldn't break or warp when the dragon morphed back, ensuring any dragon who tried would be very cramped and uncomfortable. Being unable to travel in their natural form prevented the dragons from using the majority of their powers.

Except to acquire badly needed funds for their trip now that they had a new addition, Hakyeon had sold Leo's cage. He could have gotten a lot more for it if they had time to hold out for the right buyer, but Hakyeon unloaded it on the first person he came across and was interested in it enough. Using the money from the sale, Hakyeon had also quickly purchased a used van because his and Wonshik's usual methods of travel—trains for long distance, hoofing it for short—weren't really conducive for traveling with a dragon.

“If it'll make you feel better, I can put the cuffs on him, but he's been out of the cage all day and standing here this entire time without trying to bolt, I think he'll be okay enough to ride in the back.” Hakyeon gestured at Leo, who had been standing a short distance away watching the exchange between the two of them.

Both Hakyeon and Wonshik turned to sized Leo up, who merely blinked back at them passively with his lips pursed. Leo was taller than either of them had realized, because he had always been sitting down in his cage. And now that he actually had the room to stand up straight and square his shoulders, Hakyeon was pretty impressed. He didn't give any indication either way whether or not he understood or cared about their little debate. 

Wonshik sighed and threw up a hand, acquiescing before turning away to finish loading the rest of what little gear they did have into the back of the van, murmuring about bad ideas. But Hakyeon figured he'd get over it eventually. It was easier to just do what he wanted and ask for Wonshik's forgiveness later than it was to try and convince Wonshik that his ideas were good before implementing them. His ideas were always good ideas. That time he got Wonshik's eyebrows singed off being the exception, of course. 

After rustling around in his bag for a moment, Hakyeon produced his set of cuffs. They weren't cuffs in the traditional sense; instead Hakyeon's cuffs were two thick, stainless steel bracelets. They had been charmed with a number of spells, but the most important was the one that prevented the wearer from using magic at all, and affected both humans and dragons. 

“Do you mind wearing these?” Hakyeon asked, stepping over to Leo, who automatically held his wrists out. Hakyeon was a little surprised; Leo was untrained, but he quickly remembered that the dragon had been in captivity long enough to have probably learned enough that being compliant made things easier for everyone. Without further commentary Hakyeon clicked the bracelets on around Leo's wrists. Leo didn't look too terribly happy about it, but Hakyeon was beginning to think that's just how his face was. 

With their gear packed and everything otherwise settled the trio piled into the van. Wonshik had volunteered himself to drive, leaving Hakyeon to keep an eye on Leo, who had taken over the entire back row of the van. Hakyeon felt bad for essentially trading one small enclosed space for another, but Leo actually seemed to prefer the new environment for the time being. At least, he was stretched out over the seats, with one leg tossed up around the head rest. If he was comfortable Hakyeon wasn't going to stop him if that meant he stayed quiet and didn't give Wonshik any reason to whip out a 'told you so' at Hakyeon.

They stopped for lunch at a quick drive-through fast food restaurant. Dragons could eat human food; the majority of dragons were omnivores leaning a little more towards the carnivorous side of things. But Leo had come with a couple days worth of travel rations included in his purchase price. Hakyeon had opted to feed Leo these large, flat discs that were essentially just dried meats, dried berries, grains, and protein fats with added supplements compressed together for the duration of the convention out of convenience. 

The small detour heading out of the city was so worth it though, just for the extremely perplexed look Leo presented Hakyeon with when he gave the dragon several burgers of his own. Hakyeon could only laugh when he realized that Leo must not have had much experience with human food, spending the majority of his time in captivity with breeders who found it easier to simply feed all their dragons the same bulk purchased foods. But if he had human food before, it certainly was not of the Burgers To Go-esque variety, Hakyeon figured.

The drive was quiet and uneventful. It wasn't until they were on the road for about two hours before Wonshik began speaking to Hakyeon again. 

“Since we're heading all the way to the coast, should we take the highway through the desert and hope we don't run into any nasty dust storms, or circle around the south by the sea?” 

“Wonshik!” Hakyeon gasped, adopting an affected tone of voice and pressing a hand dramatically to his chest. “I just... I can't believe... You were able to not say a word for longer than _ten whole minutes!_ ” He fanned at his face with his free hand. “I feel faint... who knew this day would come...”

“Shut up and answer the question.” Wonshik rolled his eyes so hard Hakyeon was surprised they didn't fall out of his skull and bounce their way across the dashboard. 

He took a moment to consider, tapping a finger against his bottom lip, pouted out for dramatic effect of course. “Going south would take a little longer, but it would be safer.” Hakyeon reasoned, speaking slowly as if he were thinking out loud and looking to Wonshik for confirmation. “I do like the forests down there a lot, and we can visit the Ruined City! We didn't get a good chance at exploring around there the last time we passed through, what, two years ago? Since we don't have a deadline to meet we can take some time off there and—” 

“I would prefer,” came a voice interjecting from the back of the van, high and sweet. The tone was hovering somewhere just above a whisper but softer than a murmur, and was carried forward by the acoustics of their vehicle. “If we didn't go that way.”


	3. Desert Heat

It was their sixth day driving along the desert highway, and Hakyeon was beginning to wish he had ignored Leo's request not to head south. It turned out that the van he had purchased with the money from selling Leo's cage didn't actually have entirely functioning air conditioning. Not only was this a fact that Wonshik was not going to let Hakyeon forget any time soon, but it was clear it was not a point he was going to shut up about either. He had been complaining non-stop for just about as long as they had been driving. 

“Listen,” Hakyeon snapped irritably at Wonshik when the other man groaned particularly loudly (and dramatically, in Hakyeon's opinion). “The map says we're not too far off from the next refueling point, so if you could just leave it be for the next couple hours that would be great.”

The only occupant of the van that the heat didn't seem to be affecting was Leo, of course, who was still laying in the back seat with one leg up around the headrest. Hakyeon had just switched spots with Wonshik and found himself eyeing what he could see of the dragon in the rearview mirror as he took over driving. Leo hadn't said anything since their first day of the journey, and if it weren't for the fact that Wonshik had been there to corroborate it, Hakyeon would have begun to think that he'd imagined the entire thing. 

But here they were, on the desert highway, with barely any air conditioning.

_Great._

–

Hakyeon and Wonshik lived in a very large island nation that had many different climates. Lush rainforest areas along the southernmost part of the continent, mountains along the north coast, and an assortment of green areas and deciduous forests to the east and west. It was just that the fact that the continent was so big that eventually all that greenery petered out, rivers and lakes were more scarce the further inland one went, and the middle of the nation was simply flat desert. 

The refueling stations were really the only reason that driving straight across the country was possible. There was a mandate from the government about how far apart they could be, to avoid stranded motorists, but these days hardly anyone drove straight through the country anymore unless it was commercial trucking. Anyone in a big hurry would fly from one coast to the other, anyone smart would take a train, and anyone who was forced to drive would usually take the southern route, circling around the desert entirely (albeit adding a couple weeks to their journey). Only truly desperate travelers, thrill seekers, or dragon trainers could be found among the truckers at the refueling stations. 

Most of the time the refueling stations were simply refueling stations with a diner and maybe a store or two for supplies, and a sheltered parking area for overnight stays. Sometimes though, the refueling stations had bigger populations and thus more amenities. The particular station Hakyeon and his companions were headed to happened to be one of these bigger stations. 

Thankfully, Hakyeon thought to himself, because they were running a little low on various important things. Like water. Wonshik heeded Hakyeon's request and remained mostly silent for the remaining time until they got to the next station, if only because it was just too hot to complain anymore. 

The second they arrived and Hakyeon had parked the van however, Wonshik flopped out of the vehicle and summoned the energy from who knows where to scurry off into the first air conditioned building he could find. With a sigh, Hakyeon got out as well, and paused for a second before looping around to the far side of the van and sliding the side door open. 

“Uh, hey,” he murmured after a moment, when Leo didn't seem to react at all to the fact the door had opened. The dragon, still half upside down, lolled his head to look at Hakyeon and blinked each eye slowly at him. He seemed a little disoriented, and that's when Hakyeon realized he must have caught Leo dozing. Cute. “We're going to... well, it's been a while since you've been outside and we're going to be at this particular station for a while so... if you wanted to come walk around...” 

Something Hakyeon learned over the last couple days was that if he wanted Leo to do something he had to speak his entire thought process, unless it was a simple command. Like just now he couldn't just leave the door open and tell Leo it had been a while since he'd been out. Anyone else—dragon or human, Hakyeon was certain—would have read into the statement enough to realize he wanted them out of the van. With Leo he had to explain exactly what he wanted before the dragon would do anything. And he was lucky Leo did anything at all when he was asked because as far as things went, Leo was technically untrained. It was simply his time in captivity that made him as compliant as he was, Hakyeon assumed. 

Leo sat up and simply looked at Hakyeon for several moments more before moving again, shifting forward to get out of the car. Hakyeon stepped aside and let him by, looking Leo up and down. “Are you hungry or anything? I bet if we went into that diner there would be something on the menu you could eat.” 

But Leo didn't answer—not that Hakyeon really expected one—he simply walked a short distance away and surveyed the area around them. If he really had been in captivity for over a hundred years, being passed from breeder to breeder, it was likely that Leo had not really seen anything like this place before. A small smile passed over Hakyeon's features as he stepped forward to take Leo by the elbow. “Come,” he murmured, trying to hide his amusement. “We can look at everything in a bit. Let's go eat.”

–

Dragons weren't exactly allowed inside the diner, Hakyeon noted, so he put his sunglasses on Leo so the occasion flash of his eyes didn't give them away. He figured all the other people would be too busy tucking into their food or too tired to really be bothered with scrutinizing them too closely. 

A very rotund woman with big hair took their order—Hakyeon simply chose whatever he thought Leo might like best—and finally relaxed when she went away and left them to their own devices. Leo was still peering around at their surroundings, surreptitiously sniffing here and there, and seemed to be oddly fixated on the large jar of oversized pickles on the diner counter opposite their booth. Hakyeon tried to hide his laugh, but the small sound caught Leo's attention, and he found himself the new focus of the dragon's stare. 

He squirmed a bit, but then remembered hey, he was Cha Hakyeon. Totally world famous dragon trainer! There was no reason for him to get uncomfortable just from Leo staring at him; especially not when the dragon was wearing the cuffs. There wasn't anything Leo could do to him right now. So he sat up straighter and squared his shoulders. 

“I wish I knew what you were.” Hakyeon murmured, keeping his voice low just in case. Even if Leo wasn't going to answer him, Hakyeon was still going to talk. Trust was important between dragons and trainers and if he eventually was going to train Leo he needed the dragon to trust him. The best way to do that, Hakyeon figured, was to simply show Leo he wasn't going to be like every other human that had kept him over the years. Hakyeon was better than them. Surely.

“I think you seem pretty smart and I think we could be good friends. If you let me...” Hakyeon continued. He always found himself trailing off in some fashion whenever he addressed Leo. There was just something about the way the dragon looked at him... Even with the sunglasses on right now Hakyeon could feel Leo's eyes looking at him, gaze unwavering. 

Their food arrived shortly, and Hakyeon began eating immediately, glad for something else to focus on. It wasn't until he had gotten several bites in that he noticed Leo wasn't eating. “What's wrong?” He asked, looking Leo up and down before it hit him. He had forgotten the fact that despite Leo had been living in human form for the last who-knew-how-long, he had not actually been living _as_ a human. Hakyeon had cautioned Leo to behave as human-like as possible before entering the diner and then ordered the both of them meatloaf specials.

Leo didn't know how to use a fork.

Silently remarking to himself how smart Leo was again, picking up on the fact no one else around them was eating with their hands thus not doing it himself, Hakyeon just sort of snorted outwardly, an amused sort of sound. “Oh my God, I'm sorry. Here.” 

Hakyeon reached forward to put the fork in Leo's hand, but the dragon was stubborn and kept changing his grip on it to something more comfortable. Hakyeon realized Leo was holding the fork as if he was holding it with his claws, not fingers. It would have to do though, because they needed to eat quickly and get out of there before anyone caught onto them.

–

After dinner, Hakyeon found Wonshik and helped his partner carry supplies including more water back to the van. The sun was just beginning to set, and even though they had been in the desert for a couple days now, Hakyeon was still breathless whenever he got to watch the desert sun set. It was absolutely beautiful. 

Since they did happen to be at a bigger refueling station that had a motel or two, Hakyeon and Wonshik decided to splurge for that night for a room in order to have a proper shower and to sleep in a proper bed. Hakyeon even went for a room with two beds just so Leo wouldn't have to spend the night in the van either. Wonshik complained minimally, but the promise of getting to use the shower first quickly shut that down. The rest of the evening went smoothly. 

The real problem was the next morning when they were getting ready to leave. 

Hakyeon and Wonshik were loading their overnight bags back into the van while Leo circled the vehicle, pausing every now and then to look up and sniff the air, before continuing to circle while looking at his feet. Hakyeon found it very odd, but he didn't say anything, because he wanted to let Leo stretch himself out any way he wanted before they were stuck in the van again all day.

Wonshik got into the driver's seat when they finished and Hakyeon slid the side door open, motioning at Leo to get in the next time the dragon came around from the far side of the van. “In you go.” 

“No.” 

Hakyeon was so shocked by the fact that Leo had spoke he didn't even register his refusal at first. He had to double-take, and shook his head as if to clear it. “Excuse me?” 

“There will be a sandstorm today. It will be safer here. There is more cover.” Leo spoke in his tiny voice, in short, purposeful sentences. He gestured vaguely at the buildings around them. 

Wonshik leaned back from the driver's seat to peer out of the door at Hakyeon and Leo. “There wasn't anything on the radar this morning or in any long term forecast. It'll be fine.” He addressed the dragon as if he hadn't just said his first words in over a week. Hakyeon's head whipped around to stare at Wonshik, who just shrugged at him. “What? We knew he could talk.”

“It will be safer here,” Leo merely repeated.

Hakyeon looked very conflicted, glancing between his partner and the dragon, but he could tell Wonshik was getting agitated the longer they stayed sitting there, so he ushered Leo into the van. “It will be fine. There's nothing on the radar.” He murmured at Leo's back, sliding the door shut. 

–

They had been on the road for three hours when very suddenly Leo sat up from his usual position in the back. He began sniffing the air again, and seemed to bristle slightly. Hakyeon turned around to glance at the dragon, but Wonshik pointedly ignored the behavior. 

“What if he's right?” Hakyeon murmured. 

“He isn't,” Wonshik replied. 

But it was just another hour after that when Hakyeon felt the barometric pressure changing too. At least, he thought that's what had gotten Leo going. The dragon hadn't moved since he sat up, merely staring straight ahead out of the front windshield. 

Because the desert was so flat they could see ahead of them for miles and miles. And eventually, ahead of them the sky turned dark and a wall of sand was obviously approaching at very high speed. Hakyeon bit back the urge to say 'I told you so' to Wonshik and simply just gave him a look instead. 

“Fine, fine, he was right.” Wonshik grumped, knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel tighter. “We need to find somewhere to shelter until this blows through. Who knows how big it is?” 

Hakyeon looked to Leo, to see if he would offer any insight into the storm, since he apparently knew it was coming when the radar and weather reports didn't. But Leo didn't move or even acknowledge Hakyeon was looking at him. His eyes were trained on the storm ahead of them. 

Sighing, Hakyeon shook his head. “There isn't anywhere to shelter out here, and the next refueling station is beyond that storm. We can't drive back to the other one without getting caught in this one either way...” 

“So our only option is to wait here for it to pass through, then?”

Hakyeon looked at Wonshik with a wry smile. “Guess so.” 

The storm seemed to be moving faster than any of them could have predicted, because as far away as it was it rolled up on their little van very quickly. The wind came first, then the sand. Small particles to start, but then the bulk of it really began to fly by within minutes. Hakyeon and Wonshik had rolled up the van windows, covered the vents in the console and dashboard the best they could, and tied bandannas around their noses and mouths. In lieu of proper eye protection, sunglasses were their only defense. 

Leo refused all of these items when offered. Or rather, he remained motionless, ignoring Hakyeon and staring ahead at the storm as it rolled closer and finally hit them. 

Some sand was getting into the van, that was unavoidable, but it didn't seem to bother Leo in the slightest. The wind picked up immensely and it rocked their vehicle. Visibility was less than zero; it seemed to get darker by the second. 

After one particularly strong gust, Leo finally moved. He shot forward and before anyone could say anything—let alone stop him—he pulled the door open and got out of the van. 

“LEO!” Hakyeon called, his voice lost to the wind.

Sand swirled in quickly, but Leo wretched the door shut against the wind with only minimal trouble and bolted off into the storm. Hakyeon lost sight of him almost immediately. 

“What the fuck!” Wonshik shouted.

But before either one of them could say anything else, something massive approached their van, barely visible through the sand. 

The silhouette of a very large dragon.


	4. Secret Night

“What is it?!” Wonshik demanded, knowing full well that Hakyeon couldn't see properly either. The dragon loomed closer and closer to the van, but it was impossible to make out exactly what kind it was through the swirling sand. Hakyeon would have curled his lip at his friend had the two of them not been otherwise occupied. 

The most Hakyeon could surmise just based on their location was that it was a desert dragon, but hell if he could tell what kind exactly. Not that he was going to try to interact with it in the middle of a sandstorm even if he could tell what it was. Besides, they were low on magic orbs, which was the number one most important thing Hakyeon needed when engaging dragons in dragon form. 

The most concerning thing about this development, however, was the fact that Leo had very obviously sensed the dragon coming and then proceeded to _run away_. Hakyeon was worried this would only end badly for them. 

Closer and closer the dragon came, before it stopped a short way in front of their vehicle. If Hakyeon had to guess, he would put the dragon about 15 feet high at the shoulder, and though desert dragons had stout, shorter necks compared to most other dragons, it still left the dragon's head towering over them. Hakyeon knew that desert dragons had many various horns and spikes along their back ridge and at their joints, but through the sand the only one he could see was the large slightly curved horn on it's head that took up most of the space between the dragon's eyes and the end of it's snout. 

It turned it's head, ostensibly to get a better look at them—it was difficult for dragons with face horns as big as this one to see straight ahead—when suddenly the ground beneath them rumbled as the dragon plopped down to rest in front of them. 

“What's it doing?” Wonshik asked in a voice just loud enough to be heard over the wind rushing past them, and the sound of the sand tinking off the surrounding metal. Laying in front of them, relaxing as if it didn't have a care in the world, the dragon stretched it's leathery wings out as far as they would go and proceeded to reach forward to wrap them around the van. 

Quickly, it became so dark that Hakyeon and Wonshik could no longer see anything at all, but the sound of the wind diminished, and the van stopped rocking as much. Sand stopped trickling in through the vents.

Hakyeon pulled down the bandanna he had over his nose and mouth to whisper softly. “It's shielding us.”

–

Hakyeon's cellphone was a cheap little thing with a flip screen that he constantly was running out of minutes on. The battery life was awful so it had long since wore itself out while they had been driving, and with the van shut off there wasn't any way to tell what time it was. He and Wonshik talked for a while, but otherwise sat they together in silence in the dark. Every now and then the silence would be punctuated from outside by the dragon rumbling. It took Hakyeon a bit, but he realized the sounds were rhythmic. 

The dragon was snoring.

“Are you kidding me,” he groaned, placing his face in his hands, rubbing them over his features. Though of course that was an overall unpleasant feeling because he had forgotten there was sand stuck to them. He was so sweaty there was sand stuck everywhere.

“What?” Wonshik queried disinterestedly from Hakyeon's left. He had done the best he could to make himself comfortable in the driver's seat by reclining it all the way back as far as it would go. 

Hakyeon sighed and waved a hand dismissively at Wonshik even if the younger man couldn't see him. “Nothing. The dragon outside is asleep.” There was a pause, while Hakyeon wondered if he should even voice his thoughts. Eventually, he just decided to go for it. “I'm worried about Leo...”

Immediately, Wonshik snorted derisively. “I told you we didn't need a dragon. I told you I didn't want him riding in the van. We're better off for it all if he's run away.” 

Were they, though? Hakyeon made a face at Wonshik that went unnoticed, of course. They would save money on food at least—Hakyeon felt awful trying to give the dried protein cakes to Leo all the time so he usually opted to just get extra of whatever he and Wonshik were eating for Leo—but Hakyeon had really grown to enjoy having Leo's silent presence around, looming in the back seat. Hakyeon thought that Leo's grumpy face was kind of cute, and there were at least two occasions he had to stop himself from reaching out to pinch one of Leo's squishy looking cheeks. The dragon may have been wearing the charmed cuffs that prevented him from using magic or switching forms, but they only did so much to hinder Leo's physical strength. Hakyeon was pretty sure if he tried getting anywhere near Leo's face he'd lose an arm.

But more than anything else, he was just so intensely curious about Leo. Who was he, really? _What_ was he? Was the story Hakyeon had been told true? Why after all this time had Leo finally decided to speak to him and Wonshik? With time Hakyeon was positive he would be able to get answers to his questions. But not if Leo had run off on them. 

He sighed. “Well, since the dragon outside is sleeping I guess that means Leo's nowhere nearby, or it wouldn't be so relaxed.” 

Wonshik merely grunted in response.

–

Another long stretch of silence ticked by. Despite the heat in the van both Wonshik and Hakyeon dozed until they were both suddenly jolted awake by the dragon. It whipped its wings away from the van so fast the vehicle rocked on its axles as it took off into the storm. There was a deep roar, though it sounded distant because of the wind, and several flashes of blue lightning so hot it was almost white. Something happened that the dragon did not like. It put Hakyeon on edge.

Both Hakyeon and Wonshik had sat up straight and remained motionless, trying to determine what just occurred. However, after a few more distant roars, a couple more flashes of lightning that briefly illuminated the sky here and there, the dragon was gone. And with it, any answers.

When the winds died down the storm seemed to clear almost as fast as it blew in and now Hakyeon really began to get antsy. He was sure that it was long since past sunset and this was going to make looking for Leo very difficult, as if the odds were not already stacked impossibly against them. Despite the last bit of sand here and there in the air, it was an otherwise nice night. Or it would have been nice had Hakyeon and Wonshik not been trapped in the car for the last however long. 

Immediately, as soon as it was safe, Hakyeon opened the door and flopped outside unceremoniously onto the sand. The air was cool, almost cold, and he relished the feeling of it lapping at his skin. He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply and getting more sand in his mouth than he anticipated. 

He heard Wonshik get out of the van as well, and the hood of the engine well pop open a moment later. “How bad is it?” he asked, voice tired. 

“Dunno,” Wonshik replied as he swept his flashlight over to Hakyeon, who groaned a complaining sort of sound when the light hit his closed eyes. “There's definitely sand in the system, but I can't tell just how much yet. I'm not going to risk starting the van until I figure out what needs to be flushed.” 

Had this been any other time, Hakyeon would have cursed their luck and moped right there on the ground for a bit, but this wasn't any other time. Easily, as if entirely rejuvenated, Hakyeon leapt to his feet; he had a dragon to go find. If Wonshik was otherwise occupied it was all for the better, really, because he hadn't expected his partner to want to help look for Leo anyway.

“Well, if we're going to be here for a bit...” Hakyeon began, brushing the sand off his pants as he ran down a mental list of things he would need. A jacket for sure, a backpack, one of the extra flashlights, some water bottles... He couldn't go far by himself, lest he get lost in the desert. He would need to make sure to stay in view of the van; which shouldn't be hard, given how flat the area was around them. And he definitely had to be back before sunrise... 

“Mhm?” Wonshik queried without looking up from what he was doing.

Hakyeon leaned on the open passenger side door and the frame of the van, trying to peer around the hood to get a look at Wonshik. “I'm going to go look for Leo.”

Wonshik looked up at Hakyeon, bringing the flashlight up so the both of them could see one another. “Why? He's been right there for the past five minutes.” And he turned the light so it was shining over Hakyeon's shoulder. 

Hakyeon whipped around so fast he almost lost balance. But there Leo was, standing just outside the pool of light, eyes flashing solid yellow for just a moment.

–

Morning came quicker than anyone could have anticipated and with it, the flow of traffic resumed. The first trucker who came by stopped when Wonshik flagged him down, and after explaining the situation, the driver seemed happy to help them out. While Wonshik and the driver were outside inspecting the van's engine system, Hakyeon turned around to stare at Leo. 

The dragon had shown up the night previous looking entirely unruffled, and for someone who had spent several hours out in a sandstorm, not covered in nearly enough sand. He also had his hands clasped around something he wouldn't let Hakyeon see as he had gotten into the van. 

“Leo,”

Leo's body language indicated that he was listening, but he didn't look up or otherwise acknowledge Hakyeon in any way. 

“Leo, where did you go yesterday?” Hakyeon asked, not really expecting answer, so the tone he was using with Leo was already exasperated. “And what did you bring into this van? Is it dangerous? I want to see it.” 

Silence.

“Let me see it, Leo.” 

Silence.

Hakyeon huffed and turned around once more, arms folded across his chest. “Whatever. Did you see the dragon yesterday?” he figured he might as well make conversation while Leo was listening, even if he just ended up talking to himself. “It was really big wasn't it? I didn't get a good look at it though, but it was definitely a desert dragon—” 

This topic seemed to work, because Leo bristled and he attempted to change the subject. In the rear view mirror Hakyeon saw him look up and hold out his folded hands in front of himself. “Here.”

Too curious to question Leo's unwillingness to discuss the dragon—though Hakyeon did file that away for later—he turned around to get a better look at what Leo was offering to show him. Leo's fingers unfurled and...

“That's a rock.” Hakyeon said flatly. It was the same dull color as the sand that surrounded them, and roughly a little bigger than a racquetball. “Why do you have a rock?”

“I like it.”

-

Wonshik's mood improved just a bit after he and the truck driver tinkered with whatever needed to be tinkered with and made sure the van was in okay condition. Though that didn't mean much, really, because the van still definitely required a professional looking at. Wonshik was clearly not pleased at the prospect, Hakyeon could tell, because it was probably going to cost more than what either of them wanted to spend on it. 

The next refueling point was only a couple more hours away. They made it without incident, though the van had started sputtering a bit, and parked in a covered rest area until they could find someone to fix the van properly. 

This time, Leo hopped out of the van without any prompting much to Hakyeon's surprise. The dragon gave Hakyeon a side long look as he slid past him, but he didn't say anything. Hakyeon wondered if he was being less difficult to make up for running away, but that didn't seem very Leo-like. 

Leo had just stretched his legs out, rock held close to his chest, when suddenly someone or something very fast rushed up from behind Hakyeon and barreled into Leo. The dragon was grabbed by the elbows and spun around once with the figure who knocked into him. 

“ _Yui ora o drosum!_ ” The stranger announced, looking at Leo with shining eyes.

Dragon language was something Hakyeon was only vaguely familiar with. There were many dialects among all the different breeds of dragons for one overall common tongue. But beyond certain command words used in training Hakyeon had no working knowledge of it. 

This new figure was another dragon. 

Leo looked a little addled, but once the two dragons regained their balance, he gave the new dragon a once over, up and down. They were of similar height, but this unfamiliar dragon's human form had wide shoulders and a lithe frame compared to Leo's. His smile was wide and seemed to split his features easily. His eyes, still trained on Leo's grumpy face, flashed a solid sky blue for just a moment. 

“ _Yui thuu. Vroth demd?_ ” Leo replied in the common tongue which was spoken from lower in the chest and much more guttural than the language Hakyeon and Wonshik spoke. In Leo's soft, high voice it sounded... just incredibly wrong to Hakyeon. 

The new dragon didn't even seem to acknowledge Hakyeon's presence as he addressed Leo, smiling widely. “ _Or, kathorrec. E'k o—_ ”

“Hey! Hongbin! Get back here!” A voice called from the direction the new dragon—named Hongbin, apparently—had come from. The trio of them turned to see a young boy jogging over towards them from a short distance away.


	5. Don't be Difficult

It was too quiet to sleep, if that could even be considered a problem. Hakyeon rolled over uncomfortably and sighed to himself. A day that should have been another repeat of waiting around the refueling station in tedious boredom had turned into anything but.

“Sorry about him,” The boy had said once he caught up to the group, as he watched Hongbin buzz around Leo and pepper him with questions in dragon language. “I let him out earlier and normally he just stays around the house but...” 

“Ah, you live here.” Hakyeon observed aloud, and gave the boy—a young man really, probably in his late teens or early twenties—a quick once over. It wasn't out of the ordinary for some of the bigger refueling stations to turn into what were essentially small towns, but the one they had arrived at was not a big station by any means. 

The young man looked mildly displeased by this fact, but he was quick to perk back up. “Yeah. But hey, you're a dragon trainer right? That's really cool. I wish I could go be a trainer, get my own dragon. Anything to get out of here...” He waved a hand vaguely at their surroundings. When Hakyeon glanced quizzically at Hongbin, the younger man seemed to read his mind. “Nah, he isn't mine. Hongbin belongs to my older sister. I'm Sanghyuk, by the way.”

Wonshik returned shortly with a sour look on his face, just in time to watch Sanghyuk tug Hongbin away from Leo, who was standing stock still with his rock clutched to his chest. “Who's the kid?” 

“A local,” Hakyeon replied absently.

“Well, I was just in the garage over there—” Wonshik thumbed over his shoulder. “The mechanics have a backlog of work to do thanks to the dust storm, so the earliest they can probably even look at the van is going to be tomorrow or maybe the day after.” 

“If you guys need somewhere to stay, you're welcome to come with me.” Sanghyuk said as he pushed Hongbin by the pair of them. “I know there's not a lot of places around here to stay since we're such a small station. And what rooms the motels do have are likely to be rented out.” 

“Thanks but no thanks, kiddo. We'll take our chances.” Wonshik jumped in before Hakyeon could respond. 

Sanghyuk simply shrugged. “I live over there,” He gestured vaguely with his free hand, the other held onto Hongbin's shirt. “Just in case.”

 _“Rirry!”_ Hongbin called over his shoulder as he was led away.

Wonshik and Hakyeon left Leo by the van while they went to secure a place to stay. However, Sanghyuk seemed to be right. Neither of the very small motels Hakyeon and Wonshik went to had openings for more than one night—and they didn't know how long they were going to have to be stuck here. 

An hour and a half later found the two humans and one grumpy faced dragon on the porch in front of Sanghyuk's house. 

Hongbin positively lit up when Sanghyuk opened the door. 

–

“No way, _you're_ Cha Hakyeon?” Sanghyuk exclaimed as he sat down glasses of lemonade for Hakyeon and Wonshik on the coffee table. 

“Yep!” Hakyeon said proudly. He oh so graciously chose to ignore Wonshik's eye rolling. 

“No offense but,” Sanghyuk straightened and motioned to Hakyeon, waving his hand up and down. “I thought you would be, you know, cooler.”

Wonshik almost choked on his drink. “I changed my mind. I like this kid.” 

“I'm sorry I don't live up perfectly to your expectations.” Hakyeon grumped and pulled a face on Sanghyuk before he elbowed Wonshik in the ribs. 

“Could you tell me about the arctic dragon?” 

“Oh here we go.” Wonshik grumbled. 

While they talked, Sanghyuk and Hakyeon had opted to leave the dragons outside. Apparently Hongbin spent most of his time outside anyway, and Hakyeon simply didn't know how Leo was going to react being in someone's house that was covered with an unfamiliar dragon's scent. What if he got overwhelmed?

After a time Hakyeon passed by the back door on his way back from the bathroom and peeked into the fenced off backyard—if it could be even called that. Since this was the middle of nowhere in the desert, the fenced area was mainly just sand and some weeds. Nothing at all exciting. 

Leo was sat in the middle of the yard in the sand. His legs were crossed and he had leaned back on his arms in order to turn his face up to the sun. He was clearly basking. Hongbin was next to him sitting crossed legged as well, but he was staring at Leo almost reverently as he chattered at him. 

_“Eck throth thoria? Ra eck raorry yuir kothrar?”_ Hongbin asked Leo in an excited sort of tone. 

_“Yack.”_

_“Yui dum'th vomth thu su bocd?”_

_“Mu.”_

Hakyeon twisted up his lips. Those were clearly just yes and no answers, but answers nonetheless. Why did Leo feel compelled to answer Hongbin and not Hakyeon? In Hakyeon's opinion, the way Hongbin was fussed all over Leo was probably much more annoying than anything he did to Leo. Was it because Hongbin was also a dragon? Hakyeon had been nothing but benevolent and patient with Leo these last two weeks, and here he was getting chummy with someone he had only known for a couple hours. 

Hakyeon paused. Was... was he jealous of Hongbin? 

No sooner than this thought had popped into Hakyeon's head, Leo looked straight into the screen of the back door and right at Hakyeon. He took a step or two back from the door in surprise; Leo had moved so fast it was a little unnerving. The interior of the house was dim enough that Hakyeon didn't think that Leo could see him, but even still the dragon maintained his gaze and Hakyeon had to tear himself away with his pulse pounding in his ears to rejoin Wonshik and Sanghyuk in the living room. 

As it turned out, Sanghyuk's father was one of the cooks at the diner attached to the actual refueling station proper. He was a soft spoken but friendly sort of person, as people who lived in the desert tended to be, and took very happily to the fact that he suddenly had two guests and an extra dragon invited to stay for a couple days. 

He arrived home from work and despite how tired he seemed insisted on making dinner for Hakyeon and his companions. Feeling a little like he was taking advantage of this man's generosity, Hakyeon offered to at least help Sanghyuk set the table. 

“You said Hongbin belongs to your sister? Where is she?” He asked the younger man, folding napkins and placing them down next to the places Sanghyuk laid out. 

“Er,” Sanghyuk gave a little start, and glanced up at Hakyeon before turning his face away. “She was a trainer, one of the first from this place. Everyone here was so proud of her.” He put the last of the plates down and motioned out the dining room window at the dragons in the backyard. “Hongbin was the second or third dragon she picked up. She brought him home on one of her visits.

“Two years ago she went out east to see if there was any money to be made there. Everything she earned she sent back home to us here, hoping someday we could afford to move away from the desert. But there was an accident in the training facility she was working out of—she didn't make it. Neither did three other trainers.” 

Hakyeon immediately regretted asking. “Oh. Sanghyuk. I'm so sorry—”

“My mom got sick shortly after that and died a couple months later too. Dad says it was because of a broken heart.” 

Unsure of what to say to this in the slightest, Hakyeon bit his bottom lip and reached up to place a sympathetic hand on Sanghyuk's shoulder. Training was a dangerous job, but working for a facility that had fail-safes and other precautions in place generally minimized accidents. The solo trainers in the wild made up most of the dragon training related causalities. So Hakyeon found it odd that he hadn't heard about a facility accident that actually ended up with trainers dying in the last couple years. That would normally be something trainers heard about.

“But that's also why I can't leave this place, as much as I'd like to. I can't leave dad alone.” Sanghyuk continued in a low voice, gaze remained trained out the window. 

“Dinner!” Sanghyuk's father called from the kitchen. 

–

Sanghyuk's mood picked up a bit during the meal, and it was an actual delight to talk to the young man's father. Even Wonshik seemed like he was in a good mood, despite their setbacks with the van and their trip on the whole. 

Upon learning what happened to them in the dust storm, Sanghyuk's father simply let out a low whistle and sat back in his seat. “You kids are lucky nothing else happened. The blue dragons in this region of the desert aren't really known for being super friendly. The fact that one found you and apparently tried to help you out... that's unprecedented.” 

“And now our van is out of commission.” Wonshik supplied with a sigh. 

“Have you gotten it looked at yet?” 

“The mechanics said there wasn't any way to look at it today, and who even knows if they'll have time tomorrow...” Hakyeon lamented. 

“Well, why don't I give my cousin a call after dinner here!” Sanghyuk's father quipped cheerfully as he wiggled his fork at both Hakyeon and Wonshik. “I bet he can fix it, and if he can't, I'm sure he knows someone who can!” 

The brightness of his words were infectious, and Hakyeon felt himself smile at Sanghyuk's father automatically. “That would be an amazing help, sir.” 

Wonshik opted to help Sanghyuk with the dishes and the leftovers while their host made his call and Hakyeon took dinner out back to the dragons. The sun had only just lowered below the horizon and while it was getting cool, it wasn't too unbearable yet. The ground was still radiating a lot of heat. 

“Hey guys, dinner.” Hakyeon called at Hongbin and Leo. Hongbin hurried over to him and took his plate, but Leo was much slower in coming. He stopped a few feet away from Hakyeon and gave him a long, slow once over before closing the rest of the distance in order to take the plate from Hakyeon. Hakyeon felt his face coloring; what was that even about? 

Sanghyuk and his father made up the guest room for them, but seeing as the bed was kind of small, Hakyeon relinquished it to Wonshik and opted to take the pull out couch in the small room Sanghyuk's father used as an office. It was very sparsely furnished. There was an ancient desktop computer on top of a folding table, with a rickety looking old folding chair for a seat. The walls were dark paneling and there was still wall-to-wall carpeting on the floor. A small bookcase with a pathetic amount of books was against the opposite wall. Hakyeon had a feeling this room hadn't been redecorated since the house was built. 

“It's great.” He said, smiling over his shoulder at Sanghyuk's father when he was lead to the room. “Er, what about my dragon, though..?” 

“Oh, we'll set him up with Hongbin. The two of them will be fine in the dragon room.” 

Dragon room? Hakyeon silently arched an eyebrow at Sanghyuk over his father's shoulder. Sanghyuk simply shook his head and made a cutting motion across his throat; the universal sign to shut up and not ask. 

Sanghyuk's father said something about going to get blankets for Hakyeon and bustled away. Hakyeon, frowning, joined Sanghyuk in the hallway and followed him across the house to the back door so they could get Hongbin and Leo. 

“So are you going to—”

“Hongbin sleeps in my sister's room. Dad can't call it her bedroom anymore, so it's just the 'dragon room' now.” 

Hakyeon pursed his lips in a thin line and nodded. Good thing he hadn't asked. 

Sanghyuk collected Hongbin from the backyard easily enough, prompting him with a simple 'time to come in', but Leo seemed much more opposed to entering the house when Hakyeon called him. He simply stood at the bottom of the two concrete steps that led to the small porch in front of the door, looking up at Hakyeon. 

Sanghyuk was already leading Hongbin off down the hall. Hakyeon sighed and turned back to Leo. “Please come inside.” When he still refused to move, Hakyeon stepped out onto the porch and pointed firmly at the dragon. Leo's eyes flashed their solid yellow. “Inside, Leo. Now. It's time to settle in, and these people are nice enough to give us a place to stay for the night, or until the van is fixed, or whenever so please just behave and come inside.” 

Leo simply blinked up at Hakyeon passively and made no move at all. Hakyeon stepped down onto the sand in front of Leo and reached for the dragon's wrists. There was no way in the world that Hakyeon would be able to physically budge Leo, but he sure as hell was going to try. 

“Just come inside! I don't understand why you're being so difficult!” Hakyeon complained, tugging at him. Leo remained immobile. “It gets really cold out at night you know! You won't enjoy it out here!” 

Gingerly, as if aware of his strength, Leo removed one of his wrists from Hakyeon's grip. He reached up and tilted Hakyeon's chin so that Hakyeon was looking at him. “You talk too much.” Leo whispered. Then, his eyes turned their solid yellow and remained yellow as he leaned in to very swiftly press his lips against Hakyeon's. 

Before he could register what had just happened, Leo had already parted from Hakyeon. He skirted around his trainer and walked silently into the house before he drifted off down the hallway as if he already knew where he needed to go. 

Hakyeon had remained outside until Sanghyuk came and collected him. He waved away the younger man's questions about whether or not he was alright, dismissing them with a simple mumbled response. He couldn't remember what he had said.

No, Hakyeon couldn't sleep at all.


	6. Greener Pastures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a short transitional chapter to get us where we're going next :) the next chapter will be much much longer, and it didn't quite make enough sense if broken up into two equal halves.

“Have you seen Leo?” Wonshik asked as he poked his head into study Hakyeon had made his temporary bedroom. They had been staying with Sanghyuk and his father for almost a week by this point and finally, _finally_ the van had gotten fixed. The delay was clearly not something Wonshik had been happy with, but at least they weren't spending any extra money on lodging, so Hakyeon had been able to keep him quiet that way. 

Hakyeon didn't look up from the book he had open on his lap, and he waved dismissively at Wonshik. “He should be out back with Hongbin.” 

“Well, he's not.” 

“Then he's around here somewhere,” Hakyeon grumbled in reply. He still wasn't exactly himself, even though his kiss with Leo had been several days ago. But Wonshik seemed to think Hakyeon's grumpiness was simply Hakyeon itching to get back on the road. He was more than happy to let Wonshik continue to think that. 

“Just come help me find him.” 

Hakyeon grudgingly shut the book and slid off the bed.

–

When Wonshik told Hakyeon that Leo wasn't out in the yard, Hakyeon simply assumed Leo was elsewhere with the other dragon, wherever that might have been. But Hongbin was sitting out back alone basking in the sun and didn't know where Leo was either when questioned. 

“He left,” Hongbin murmured, head tilted back and eyes closed in order to maximize the sunlight hitting his face. 

As was the norm over the past week whenever Hakyeon heard Hongbin speak a human language, he was surprised by how deep Hongbin's voice actually was. It sounded as odd to his ears as hearing Leo's soft voice speak dragon language. “What do you mean 'he left'?” he asked in an exasperated tone and pushed those thoughts aside. 

“After we came out this morning. He said he had to go and he went over the fence.” Hongbin cracked an eye and looked at Hakyeon. “Our cuffs prevent us from doing anything big—” Hongbin wore a set of magically binding cuffs similar to Leo's, though Hongbin's were stainless steel rings around each ankle. They looked much less conspicuous this way than the large bracelet like ones Leo sported. At least they weren't immediately visible. “—but that fence isn't stopping anyone, even in this form.” 

“Thanks,” Hakyeon gritted through clenched teeth, and turned on his heel to head back into the house.

“I packed the van this morning,” Wonshik said to Sanghyuk as Hakyeon approached the pair of them in the kitchen. “And I didn't notice anything, but that was before you let the two of them out.” 

“He 'went over the fence' according to Hongbin.” Hakyeon supplied with his arms crossed over his chest while he shifted his weight from foot to foot. 

Sanghyuk ducked his head and rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. “I'm sorry guys... If we figure out what direction he went maybe you'll be able to catch up to him in the van?” 

Wonshik grumbled and made a motion as if he would strangle Leo, had the dragon been there. “Provided he stayed near a road. We aren't going off the beaten path in that awful excuse for a van.” 

The trio stepped out the front door and headed for their vehicle, only to discover Leo sitting right there in the front passenger seat. Forgetting how weird even just looking at Leo had made him feel the last couple days, relief washed over him as Hakyeon darted forward and pulled the door open. 

“What do you think you're doing?!” 

With his large hands clasped together in his lap, his rock carefully cradled between them, Leo merely tilted his head at Hakyeon as if this reaction puzzled him. “I want to leave now,” he murmured.

–

Leo refused to move from the seat he had already settled into so Hakyeon dropped onto the short section of middle seats as they set off. In the end this turned out to be better for him, because from this angle—under the guise of resting with his eyes half closed—he was able to observe the dragon. 

Generally Leo kept himself out of sight by laying down while they were driving, but today he seemed very alert and almost excited in a way. Wonshik assured the van at large that they perhaps had another day and a half before they'd make it out of the desert and with each passing hour Leo seemed to perk up a bit more and more. Leo didn't say or act at all out of the ordinary; he continued to stare straight ahead out the windshield. However, it looked as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders. Despite it being his request that they pass through the desert in the first place, Leo was just as happy as the rest of them to be leaving it, Hakyeon figured. 

The trio spent the night in a refueling station so small the diner had already closed for the evening by the time they arrived and the sun had not even fully set yet. Dinner ended up being snacks from a vending machine. Wonshik and Hakyeon were treated to the sight of Leo attempt to eat fruit gummies for the first time, at Wonshik's instance. Leo clearly did not enjoy the way they stuck to his teeth and everyone had a good laugh at his expense. For a time, Hakyeon felt like he could look at Leo without his heart leaping into his throat or pounding a little too hard in his chest. 

They started out early the next day after filling the van's gas tank as soon as the station opened. This time, Hakyeon was so engrossed by the changing landscape he barely paid Leo any attention. Slowly the endless sand gave away to a more rocky composition, with scrubby vegetation dotted here and there. The twiggy brush became low trees, and after a good six or seven hours, they had finally passed out of the desert entirely. 

Farm land surrounded them now. It was a much much more welcome sight, and Wonshik pulled over just so they could pause and appreciate the greenery for a little while. 

“Next time we go back to the west coast, we are not going back through the desert. I don't care what anyone says.” Wonshik gave Leo a pointed look. The dragon merely blinked back at him passively. 

It was still another two or three days to the actual east coast itself, but without the oppressive heat bearing down on them and crushing their spirits, they were no longer in a hurry. Even farm land was more populated than the desert, and there was always something to see or a small town to stop in and explore. Hakyeon and Wonshik had decided to come out this way without any sort of solid plan even before purchasing Leo, so now they were just going to see where their adventuring led them. 

As such, they drove until they reached the first decently sized town, and opted to stop even though the day wasn't quiet over yet. 

“This place seems nice,” Hakyeon murmured as he stepped out of the van and lifted his arms above himself to stretch. Wonshik was quick to follow, but Leo dawdled as always before he also got out of the van. Because they weren't sure how Leo would be received here, Hakyeon gave Leo his sunglasses to wear once more just as an added precaution. That is to say Hakyeon wasn't exactly worried anything was going to happen to Leo, but it would be easier to take him places if he was passing as human. 

“Do we need anything here?” Wonshik asked, sweeping an arm at the downtown market area they had parked by. There wasn't anything extensive or fancy by the looks of the buildings and names of the shops, just the standard sleepy farm town fare.

Hakyeon shrugged. “Wouldn't hurt to have a look around. Maybe we'll find something good. Oh!” he clapped his hands together lightly. “Do you think they'll have someone here who makes magic spheres? Being one of the last towns before hitting the desert might mean trainers stop here sometimes...” Hakyeon did desperately need a refill on those. 

“Ehh,” Wonshik pulled a face. “Magic is expensive. If we get some now we're going to be cutting our budget really low. What we really need is to find somewhere we wouldn't mind staying for a while and grabbing a couple dragons to train and flip, or something, but we just need to sell some shit and start bringing in money again.”

As if on cue, Leo held his hands out in front of himself and glanced at them pointedly, offering his wrists to Wonshik. Wonshik caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and instantly colored red before he babbled out a garbled 'I didn't mean you' under his breath. 

“I'm going to have a look around just in case. Maybe we'll get lucky and there will be something cheap—”

“Great, I'll go look at supplies then.” Wonshik cut Hakyeon off, and threw up a hand in a quick wave as he turned around to hurry off. “You take Leo!” 

“Hey, wait!” But Wonshik was gone. Hakyeon sighed and stood there awkwardly for a moment or two with his eyes down on his feet before he was able to bring his head up and look at Leo directly. Leo was already staring at Hakyeon and even with the sunglasses on his gaze was slightly unnerving. “Er,”

Leo shrugged and started off in the opposite direction from the one Wonshik had taken. Hakyeon was quick to follow, and hurried to pull ahead of Leo and his long legs. Neither one of them said anything as they went, and Hakyeon was very visibly tense. Whenever a shop piqued Hakyeon's interest he was able to momentarily distract himself by looking at the goods for sale, but ultimately he didn't end up purchasing anything. 

Hakyeon asked a patron in one of the stores he stopped in if they had a local magic maker, but he was then informed the last one had only just left the town the week prior to head to the nearest city for an urgent matter. No one knew when he would be back.

“Great, thanks.” Hakyeon murmured at the old woman and headed back up front of the shop. It sold books and dusty looking magazines, but off in one corner there was a cafe counter, if it could even be considered that. On a whim, Hakyeon purchased two iced coffees of their very limited menu and headed back outside to join Leo, whom he had left waiting out front under the shop's canopy.

Silently he handed Leo the drink, and the dragon took it and sniffed it curiously but didn't attempt to drink it right away. Instead, Leo clasped his hands around the cup and seemed to be enjoying the cool temperature. Hakyeon sipped his own with a little sigh, looking out at the field across the way that he could see from behind the buildings on the other side of the road and parking lot. 

“You have been avoiding being alone with me.” 

Hakyeon gave a little start when Leo spoke and looked down at his feet. That was true. “I... wanted to give you time to hang out with Hongbin while there was another dragon around.” Hakyeon said lamely. It was an empty excuse, and he was sure Leo could see right through it anyway. “For socializing purposes. It's important for training...” 

Leo barely even reacted, as if he expected something like this. “You are not training me.” 

“I—I know that but later, when there's time and... yeah...”

“No. You are not training me.”

Hakyeon finally looked up once more. His eyebrows were furrowed and he frowned deeply. “What are you getting at? I know I'm not training you right now, but later when I can work out exactly how it can be handled—”

“I will not allow it.” Leo clarified, his voice soft and even as ever. “If you try, I will eat you.”


	7. Head First

“Where the hell are we?” Wonshik complained and paused as they reached the street corner. His hands were on his hips, and he was glaring at Hakyeon. “I thought you knew where this place was? We've walked past that one advertisement at least three times now.”

Hakyeon curled his lip at his partner and dismissed this. “That advertisement is everywhere. It's for some sports drink.” 

“Yeah but _this_ one has a bunch of dicks drawn on it.” 

Hakyeon could only sigh and simply ignored Wonshik. They had made it to the next largest city finally, after another day or two of driving, and Hakyeon was on a mission to get his magic spheres. Wonshik was opposed to the idea completely considering how much it was going to cost them in the long term, especially if Hakyeon didn't catch anything soon to train and flip. 

Wonshik gave Hakyeon's shoulder a bit of a shove when the older man paid him no mind. “Hey. Come on, this is the second biggest city on the continent. There are multiple training facilities you can intern at for some quick cash instead of this.”

The way Hakyeon reacted, one might have thought Wonshik offended the last fifteen generations of Hakyeon's family. He rounded on Wonshik and drew himself up—they were of similar height, but Wonshik had better build—and prodded Wonshik square in the chest. “Cha Hakyeon works only for himself. Freelance forever. If it means I have to sleep in the dirt until I can afford a roof over my head, I'll do it!” 

“Yeah okay, but the last time we did that you complained for six straight hours until I got you a hotel room...” 

Hakyeon turned around and would hear no more of this. He checked to see if Leo was still behind them, and called out to him. “Hey Leo, come on. We're going to go find the magic maker.” 

Leo merely blinked at Hakyeon and made no immediate movements to obey. Things the last few days were still strained between the two of them, and while Hakyeon's cheery front might have been fooling Wonshik, it wasn't working at all with Leo. 

“Why do you need to go to this specific shop?” Wonshik cut in, as he continued to complain. “We passed at least two others that I noticed. If you're just going to catch and flip some baby dragons, or even juveniles, you don't need anything too fancy.”

“Because I rather not chance my life with magic spheres from lower level magicians! What if the magic I had with me when I met the arctic dragon were inferior? Then what? I'd be dead!” 

“You and I both know well enough that you can't pull that story on me, Hakyeon—”

“Shut up, please.” Hakyeon hissed, and glanced around them. The area they were in was largely underpopulated in the early afternoon; no one in the immediate area overheard or appeared to care at all what they were discussing. 

“You have had dealings with an arctic dragon?” Leo asked, rather abruptly. His interest was clearly piqued. 

“Er, yes, well...” Hakyeon turned to Leo, suddenly turning red around the ears. That was the most Leo had even acknowledged him in the last couple days and Hakyeon was flustered by the attention when caught off guard. “It was a while ago now, no use bringing it up...” Wonshik rolled his eyes. 

Leo turned his head and gave Hakyeon a long stare from the corners of his eyes, as if he was trying to figure out exactly how he should process this. 

With the heat slowly creeping into his cheeks Hakyeon turned away and took Wonshik by the elbow. “Come on, we aren't going to find the shop standing here.” He mumbled and tugged the younger man off to cross the street. 

–

The shop was a little place, down an even smaller side street from the ones they had been wandering around on. It was tucked between a dusty looking noodle joint and a store that, as far as Hakyeon could tell, sold exclusively old women's clothes with styles that were relevant thirty years ago and had not seen the light of day since. 

The magic shop itself wasn't really faring any better as far as looks went. The window to the shop was largely obscured with a thick film of dust, and through it an assortment of charms, orbs, and other magical items could just barely be seen littering the display shelves set up there. Outside the shop itself were boxes stacked up beneath the window, filled with magical books for sale that appeared to never be looked through, judging from the amount of trash also in the boxes probably tossed there by passerby. There was even a chicken hunkered down in one of the boxes, perched atop it's contents. The shop door was propped open with a rock. 

“We spent all that time looking for this place.” Wonshik commented in a flat voice, clearly very _very_ unimpressed. 

“Shut up.” Hakyeon replied. Though now he had gotten a look at the shop, he didn't want to admit he was thinking the same thing. Wonshik was never allowed to be right. “It's supposed to be the best place in the whole city for magic. Looks don't mean anything.”

Wonshik made a disbelieving sort of sound. Hakyeon gave him a shove towards the entrance. “Leo, you stay here.” Hakyeon motioned towards the boxes vaguely before he stepped into the shop behind Wonshik. 

It was cramped inside. Shelves were set up with no clear direction, absolutely covered in items for sale that had no clear order; like items were not grouped together at all. Additional items hung from the ceiling, ranging from charmed nets, bags, and chains to smaller items like pouches of pebbles, and even things that didn't make any sort of sense, like a collection of upside down chairs. Overall, the interior of the shop was very claustrophobic, and Hakyeon wondered how the people who worked in the shop handled it on a daily basis.

Wonshik swore a bit after clipping his shoulder for a third time on an oddly jutting shelf. “I'm just going to stay over here and look at, uh—” Wonshik scooted into the next aisle, if it could be called that, and glanced down at the items on the shelf immediately in front of him. It was a collection of various animal paws and something that appeared to be a shrunken head. He frowned. “—these. Go get your magic so we can get out of here.”

Hakyeon acknowledged this with a wave and continued off to what he assumed would be the back of the shop. Spheres generally always had to be purchased directly from staff behind a counter to prevent people who didn't know how to use them from getting a hold of them easily. Hakyeon didn't really see the point considering anyone could just walk in and buy themselves a cursed necklace or the like without any sort of interrogation, but he supposed that wasn't his business. 

As he approached it was clear that he and Wonshik were not the only patrons in the shop—a heated argument was coming from the direction Hakyeon was headed. 

“Do you know when she'll be back?” A male voice demanded. 

“Not really, no. She had something to attend to.” This voice was much calmer, though it's tone was laced with irritation. “The Mistress is very busy, appointments need to be booked weeks out.”

“I came all this way from my town, and I'm the only sorcerer there, I really can't be away for that long. I need her to help me.”

“She isn't here. If you have such an immediate issue why not visit one of the other shops in the district?”

“No! She's the foremost expert on transmutations in the country. It has to be her.” 

Hakyeon rounded the corner of a bank of shelves and finally found himself in a slightly more open area of the shop in front of the counter he had been looking for. The other patron was a man who appeared to be about Hakyeon's age and he had the biggest nose Hakyeon had ever seen on a person. 

“Listen there's nothing else I can do for you unless you want to put your name on the Mistress's waiting list. Now get out of the way, I have a real customer to tend to.” The clerk brushed the patron off and motioned Hakyeon forward, who sheepishly stepped around the other guy. “What can I get you?”

“Ah, I'm just looking for some combat spheres. Fire level 5 to start, Water level 3, and I suppose Protect level 4. Shell level 6 would also be fine if you don't have any Protect.” Hakyeon rattled off his standard order. “Do you happen to know what kind of dragons are most widely available in this area?” 

“Around here it's mostly bronze dragons since we're so close to the water and reef drops off pretty fast, but there's also some reds around the volcano, and greens in the forests.” The clerk replied after a minute of consideration. 

Hakyeon nodded. “In that case I better get some Ice level 3 and Mist level 7 as well.” He fished his sphere bag out of the pouch he generally wore slung around his hips and placed it on the counter for the clerk to take and fill. While the clerk was busy doing that, Hakyeon tried to ignore the feeling of eyes boring into his skin. 

“Dragon trainer, huh.”

“Yep.” Hakyeon turned to the other patron and gave him a small, tight smile. He was aware whatever problem this guy had put him into a foul mood, and Hakyeon didn't want any trouble. Oh man, his nose was so big. 

“Been at it long?” 

“Couple years now.” Hakyeon replied vaguely and almost sighed in relief when the clerk popped back up with his bag. 

The clerk set the bag on the scale to weigh it and punched a couple numbers into his register. “That's going to be 450 novas.” 

Hakyeon's eyes nearly fell out of his head. “That much? This would hardly break 300 back out west...”

“We don't haggle here,” The clerk immediately caught onto Hakyeon's angle. “450 for this lot. Or 10 white crowns if you don't have enough novas.” 

Ridiculous as it was, Hakyeon didn't see any other choice. It was his insistence that they spend all that time to come here, and if he left empty handed he would never hear the end of it from Wonshik. He fished out the gold and pushed it over the counter to the clerk before he reached to take the pouch back.

“The Mistress also guarantees full satisfaction for her magic spheres,” The clerk said as he counted the coins quickly before they were set into the register drawer. “So if one fails—which it won't—and you die you can get your money back.” 

“...great. Thank you.” Hakyeon took his receipt and turned to leave. He paused when his eyes stopped on the other patron, who looked like he was getting ready to start arguing with the clerk again. “Ah... good luck with your problem.” 

“Thanks.” The guy replied and Hakyeon scurried out of there without a second look. 

Once Wonshik had been collected and they headed back outside, Hakyeon was surprised to find Leo crouched on the ground with his arms wrapped around his knees while the dragon stared silently at the chicken in the box next to him. 

“Come on Leo, you can't eat that chicken. If you're hungry we'll get food now.” 

Leo shook his head; it wasn't like that. “I know this chicken.” 

“No you don't. It's a chicken.” Hakyeon reached to tug at Leo's elbow. “I'm starving though, so let's go.” 

Leo unfurled and stood as he allowed himself to be led away, he turned and waved a bit at the chicken. “Bye, Ilhoon.” 

–

“How much?!” Wonshik demanded. 

“Too much.” Hakyeon replied, instead of repeating the number, as if that would make Wonshik less angry. They were in a small sandwich restaurant with other customers, so he hoped that would keep the outbursts to a minimum. “Good magic is expensive.”

Wonshik merely put his sandwich down and put his hands over his face. “We're going to be stuck here for a while... I'm going to have to get a job...”

Hakyeon puffed his cheeks up and reached across the table to neck chop Wonshik. “You should get one anyway!”

“I have one; I'm your training partner! You just haven't made any money in months to do anything besides barely sustain us, never mind pay me for everything I do...”

“I'll get you something nice for Christmas.” Hakyeon promised.

But right now business was more important. Wonshik sat up straight and sighed. “I'll start looking for cheap rooms to rent after lunch. We only have the hotel room for a couple more days.” He pointed at Hakyeon. “You take Leo after lunch and head to the beach. If there's bronze dragons here those would be the best type to catch.” 

–

After a quick stop by the room to get some of his gear, Hakyeon was ready to go. He got directions from a local and headed to one of the beaches that was marked dragon territory instead of for human use. Of course, that didn't stop dragons from popping up there too occasionally, but he would have a better chance if there were fewer people around. 

He trudged his way across the sand, sinking slightly with every step so that if was hard to move quickly. Leo, following Hakyeon at a short distance, did not appear to have this problem. After Hakyeon made it to the edge of the water, he picked a direction and slowly began walking along the shore. He watched the waves come in for a little while and enjoyed the view; it was really nice to be near the ocean again. 

There was one problem, however. Bronze dragons tended to live underground in caves near water with plenty of fish, like the reef here provided. They also spent quite a lot of time in the water itself. And while bronze dragons were very friendly to humans—as most metallic dragons were—Hakyeon wasn't sure how he was going to go about coaxing one out long enough to subdue and catch it. 

“You wouldn't happen to secretly be a bronze dragon or something that could swim out there and rustle some babies or juveniles up for me, would you?” Hakyeon turned to Leo, who just stared at him flatly in response. Even if Leo was able to, Hakyeon didn't think Leo would have gone out of his way to help at all anyway. 

Either way, at least the weather was nice, and there was no immediate rush to get anything done. Hakyeon was happy enough to do recon to scope out the area to see where encountering some bronze dragons at a later time might occur. It was also low tide so that definitely cut down on the probability that any dragons were going to surface any time soon. If he didn't find signs of anything along this particular beach, maybe he would try his luck in the forests around the volcano. Hakyeon had caught some green dragons before, and while not ideal, it would at least be a good start. 

Hakyeon turned around after a bit to make sure Leo was still behind him only to discover the dragon had sat himself down in the sand some ways back and hadn't moved. He backtracked with a grumble, cursing the ache the soft sand was giving his knees, and knocked Leo on the shoulder. The dragon didn't appear to be sunbathing exactly and Hakyeon didn't feel bad for interrupting him. 

“Yah. What are you doing? I can't just leave you here. Anyone notices and I'll get fined. Or worse, you'll get confiscated. We don't know how strict the police here are or if they patrol the area much.”

Leo merely blinked up at Hakyeon. “Wait.” he murmured. 

–

There was just something in Leo's tone that told Hakyeon he should listen this time, so he took a seat next to Leo a short distance away and waited as well. He wasn't quite sure how long the two of them were there for, sitting in silence that was only broken by the crashing waves before he felt it. 

The ground was reverberating beneath them.

Hakyeon looked up and from a distance could tell there was a very large dragon coming down the beach at a decent pace. Hakyeon stood up and assumed a defensive stance, fingers already curled around a couple of the spheres he had purchased earlier in the day. The dragon had clearly seen them, so there was no use running, but he had no way of knowing if it was friendly or not until it got there. 

Despite how far away it was when Hakyeon noticed it, the dragon made its way to them very quickly. It was a full grown bronze dragon, and a model of perfection for the species. Its snout was pointed, beak-like, and it had a split tongue that flicked out not unlike a snake. Its body was long and streamlined; made for swimming. The scales on it were smooth, and the bronze color was mottled with bluish-green striping and when it very suddenly unfurled its wings, flapping them once and spraying water droplets, the same striping could be seen along the skin stretched between the wing ribbing. The dragon had webbing between its toes and behind its forelimbs; its tail was long and had a large, spiny, dorsal fin like appendage almost the entire length of it. Twelve feet at the shoulder with a long neck and head even higher above that, it was a very large animal. 

It reared back and then let itself fall forward, thumping the ground excitedly with its feet. Hakyeon made sure to stay out of the way of its claws. Leaning in, the dragon exhaled a short breath before nudging the tip of its snout against Leo's cheek. Leo merely reached up and pat its cheek in return, even though the short breath it had expelled mussed Leo's hair all into his eyes. 

“What do you think you're doing?” Hakyeon called, and he wasn't sure if he was talking to Leo or the bronze dragon. 

The creature turned and repeated the same motion; it exhaled quickly as if in reply and then gave Hakyeon a nudge as well. Then it excitedly reared back once more before it flapped its wings. It was very happy to see them. 

“Mm?” Leo looked to Hakyeon after the question had been processed. “Don't worry. It's Hongbin.” 

–

On Leo's insistence they waited more. And it took some time, but Sanghyuk eventually turned up, as Hakyeon assumed he would if this large bronze dragon was actually Hongbin. But why was he here? How did he get here? 

“That's a story,” Sanghyuk laughed in reply when asked, and sat next to Hakyeon in the sand. “I told you I wanted to be a trainer like my sister. And basically, dad could see how much I wanted to go after you guys once you left. It took a day but he convinced me he'd be alright and told me to go. So I took Hongbin and came here, because this city is where my sister caught him.” He motioned out to the water in front of them, where Hongbin was rolling in the sand and low tide waves. “I don't know where exactly, but he seems happy.” 

“How did you know we were going to be here?” 

“I didn't. Got lucky. But I would call that fate too, yeah? Meeting here again.” Sanghyuk smiled at Hakyeon, all warmth. 

Hakyeon couldn't help but smile back. Sure, it had only been about a week, but it was nice to see Sanghyuk. “Will you be in town for a while?” 

He nodded. “Yeah. I'm going to start learning at one of the training centers. Hongbin and I are going to kill it because we're already bonded pretty well.” 

“I think you'll do just fine too.” Hakyeon placed a hand on Sanghyuk's shoulder and squeezed gently. 

–

“So today was a bust but the kiddo's here too. That's cool I guess.” Wonshik summed up later that evening when Hakyeon joined him in the hotel room. They were sitting together on one of the beds, while Leo was sprawled entirely across the second. Hakyeon was pretty sure the dragon did that on purpose to prevent anyone from being able to join him. 

“Mhm,” Hakyeon nodded and sipped on his banana milk. They had stopped by a convenience store on the way back from the beach for snacks for the evening. “He said he's going to be living at the training center. Did you find any rooms for us yet?” 

Wonshik shook his head. “I'll keep looking.” 

“Alright. Well, tomorrow I think I'm going to catch a ride to the base of the volcano and try my luck in the forests out there. I don't know if I'm patient enough to wait around and find a hatchling bronze, even if they'd be easier to work with.” 

Wonshik could only cluck his tongue. “You know how greens are. Even if you catch one and train it to be a perfect angel you know we can't sell it for much since no one would keep a green adult.” 

Hakyeon sipped his milk slowly and just let the gears turn in his head. “If I could find a green tree dragon it might be better than a vine dragon or those super poisonous mossy green dragons...” 

“I still don't like this idea.” Wonshik sighed. 

–

Hakyeon woke up very early the next morning and gathered his gear as quietly as he could while he tried not to disturb anyone. So he nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned around to get his shoes and found Leo sitting straight upright on his bed watching Hakyeon with unblinking eyes. 

“Oh my God,” he whispered, placing a hand to his chest. “Why are you like this? Don't scare people like that.” 

“Shut up,” Wonshik grumbled from across the room, his face half smushed into his pillow. 

Hakyeon ignored him. “Come on Leo, if you're hungry come with me. We can eat and go hunting.” Leo silently slid off the bed to join Hakyeon; he didn't need much prompting beyond the promise of food to be compliant sometimes. 

“I sincerely hope you get caught in an acid stream.” Wonshik continued to complain as Hakyeon finished getting ready and finally ushered Leo out of the hotel room. And just for that comment, he let the door slam behind him.

There were regular tours of the volcano and the area surrounding it for tourists. Of course, the tours only went to the safer areas, but this meant Hakyeon and Leo had easy enough access to the mountain and forest via a shuttle bus to the tour sites where tickets for the actual tours were available. Hakyeon was just very careful to hide all his dragon gear in a backpack and give Leo his sunglasses once more. All they had to do when they got there was sneak away. 

They caught the first bus up to the mountain after breakfast and disembarked at the first stop, a nice area at the base of the volcano. There were viewing platforms and the like, to look out over the trees and see the ocean, and areas to take pictures. A small snack shack and gift shop were there as well. Luckily since it was so early only a handful of tourists had ridden up. As soon as Hakyeon saw his opening—while everyone was distracted taking pictures of the sea—Hakyeon grabbed Leo's hand and pulled him away. They hurried off the platform back to the road, down the way they had come, and stopped in front of the trees when he was sure they were out of sight of the tour group and their wranglers. 

“This looks like a good a place to start as any.” Hakyeon paused at the tree line, and only just then seemed to notice he was still holding Leo's hand. Ears burning, he quickly dropped it. “Um... you're not going to let me get hit with any acid right?” 

“Maybe.” 

Hakyeon paused and pursed his lips. Well, it wasn't a solid refusal to help. He'd take it. “Come on,” he murmured before heading into the trees.


	8. A Series of Unfortunate Events

Hakyeon and Leo had tracked down a small vine dragon close to it's nest. It appeared to be a litter runt, and not yet an adolescent which made it ideal for capture and training. However, Hakyeon was doing his best to avoid getting the attention of the small dragon's parents—the last thing he wanted was to come face to face with any sort of adult dragon of the green variety. 

The baby had scurried off into some brush just as Hakyeon tossed a mist sphere, blanketing the area in fog. The ambient temperature in the immediate area dropped several degrees and Hakyeon gave an involuntary shiver. The mist was so thick that the dragon wouldn't be able to navigate it's way out of the brush without some difficulty; the only downside was that Hakyeon couldn't really see either. But green dragons preferred to nest in areas that were mostly enclosed—by a waterfall, or in a small out of the way cave. In chasing the baby back to it's nest, it narrowed down the possible directions for the dragon to go. And Hakyeon was between it and freedom. 

While chasing the vine dragon Hakyeon completely lost track of Leo, and had even forgot his other dragon was with him for the moment. Caught up in the chase all Hakyeon could think about was grabbing the vine dragon and making himself scarce. 

There was some rustling coming from Hakyeon's right and he froze. He needed to grab the baby before it made it out of the mist covered area, because he was sure if it managed to get too far away it would disappear into the brush and he would never see it again. The patter of it's feet could be heard, picking each step carefully, as it tried to find a way through. It sounded very unsure of itself. This was definitely Hakyeon's best chance. 

Hakyeon gingerly made his way towards the sound. Tree limbs and low bushes came out of the fog as he got close enough to them to see and pass through. The baby dragon clearly froze when it heard Hakyeon approach, and that's when he knew he was close. Now it was just a waiting game. As long as he stayed completely still, eventually the baby would give up it's location—either by accident, or because it would think he had gone. 

He didn't know how long he waited there, barely breathing, with the obedience collar ready to go in hand. But soon enough the baby took several sure steps forward and it's form started to come into view through the mist. Hakyeon didn't take any chances and immediately dove for the dragon. 

Vine dragons were much more serpentine in appearance than most other dragon species so as soon as he made contact with the dragon, it wrapped itself around Hakyeon in an pseudo-attempt at constriction. But of course he was much too large for the small dragon and after a small struggle he forced the collar on around the base of the baby's neck. Hakyeon breathed a sigh of relief once he had done so and made sure the lead was attached to it.

Suddenly, a large figure loomed out of the mist and Hakyeon nearly jumped out of his skin when Leo casually made himself known. “Why are you like this?” he grumbled, not really expecting an answer. But when his guard was down for just that split second, the vine dragon bit Hakyeon's forearm. He cried out in a mixture of surprise and pain. 

Leo looked a little startled himself when Hakyeon cried out unexpectedly. But once he leaned in close enough to figure out what the problem was, he very calmly pried the baby's jaws away from Hakyeon's arm and tapped the end of it's snout with his fingers. It seemed put off and settled back, while Hakyeon blindly rustled in his side bag with his good hand for a muzzle. He didn't often have to use them and carried them more as a just in case sort of measure, but this dragon definitely asked for it. 

“Here,” he murmured to himself and breathed out. Leo quickly figured out what Hakyeon was doing and steadied the baby while he slipped the muzzle onto it. “Thanks.” 

It wasn't until everything was finally said and done that Hakyeon felt the blood running down the length of his forearm, coating his palm, and dripping off the tips of his fingers. 

–

The biggest training center in the city was less of a facility and more of a compound. The grounds were expansive, well maintained, and sectioned off into usable areas based on dragon types. There were also buildings that housed the non-local trainers, but many more that were specifically for the dragons themselves—breeding centers, incubation facilities, large concrete and rebar buildings that were nothing but rows of cages of dragons boarded at the center. At the middle of it all was a large domed building: the actual training arena itself.

Needless to say, Hakyeon was absolutely in Heaven when he arrived. This training center was better than anything he had worked at previously and he was excited to get a good look around. Of course he had made sure to inform the management of his arrival—he was the great dragon trainer Cha Hakyeon!—so he could make sure there was someone there to meet him and give him full access. Which he absolutely needed. Of course.

Since he had been bit, however, Leo had been sticking annoyingly close to Hakyeon for the last couple days. It had made moving their things into the small one-room apartments Wonshik had found difficult at best because he was constantly underfoot instead of being useful. So even though Hakyeon had been counting on some time alone to work with the baby he caught, Leo had tagged along to the facility. It was one thing to pass Leo off as a human when they were somewhere with people who weren't overly familiar with dragons so long as Leo was wearing the sunglasses Hakyeon had given him, but Hakyeon was honestly worried about how the staff at the center were going to react. Everyone here knew better, sunglasses or not. 

The staff member the facility sent to meet Hakyeon and Leo was a short, feisty girl; likely some sort of intern. “Cha Hakyeon, right?” She chirped, glancing at the sheets on her clipboard before looking up at Hakyeon with a smile. 

“That's me.” He smiled right back and found it very easy to do so. 

“I'm Sunkyu, but you can call me Sunny! I'll be showing you around.” Sunny glanced down at her papers again, before she looked back to Hakyeon and Leo with a small frown. “We only have you listed on the log for today, sir—”

“Hakyeon, please.”

“—Hakyeon. I only have one full access pass authorized.” She held up a small card. “I'm sorry but your friend will have to remain on the public areas of the grounds if he wishes to enter the facility.” 

All at once Hakyeon breathed both a sigh of relief and cast a worried glance at Leo. If Leo wasn't following him around there was no risk of staff finding Leo out. But he had no idea of the dragon would even accept that; Leo was still standing very close to Hakyeon and acting like he hadn't even heard what Sunny said. 

With his winsome smile back on Hakyeon turned his attention back to Sunny. “I'm sorry about this. I promise he won't be any trouble if he's permitted to wait for me somewhere out of the way..?” Hakyeon could feel Leo's eyes boring into him from behind the sunglasses but he tried to ignore it. 

Sunny rustled her papers again and motioned for the pair of them to follow her. If she noticed anything off about Leo she didn't show it and Hakyeon found himself breathing another soft sigh of relief when they started after her. 

Sunny was chattering at them as they walked along but Hakyeon was distracted by the landscaping as they went, making a note to come back to look at a couple flowers he didn't recognize, and only tuned back in to Sunny when she started talking about the vine dragon. 

“Of course we had it set up in one of the best pens right away when you sent it to us,” she was saying, flipping again through her papers on the clipboard. “And a preliminary work-up shows the baby to be promising. Female, only about three months old too. A perfect time to be taken for training—not too young to still require intensive mothering but not too old to be set in it's ways.” Sunny frowned. “It's attitude needs some work though. She bit one of the caretakers yesterday.”

Instinctively Hakyeon's hand went to his forearm, and he gingerly ran a thumb over the bite he had there hidden by his shirt sleeve. “Yeah... I'll work on that.” 

Sunny beamed at him. “I'm sure it won't be a problem for Cha Hakyeon!” 

When they reached the dragon housing building Sunny turned and frowned at Leo, who had been following just a pace behind Hakyeon as they walked along. Quickly picking up on this, Hakyeon turned to look at him as well. “Sorry Leo, you can't follow us in here.” 

“There's a shady grassy area with benches and a lovely garden for public use down the path this way.” Sunny chirped as she pulled her bright customer service smile back on. “And a little ways beyond that is the cafeteria if you get hungry.” 

The thought of Leo attempting to do something so human as ordering food in a cafeteria all on his own was an amusing thought, and Hakyeon had to press his lips together firmly in order to keep from smiling too wide. When Leo made no immediate attempts to move Hakyeon reached over and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “He'll be fine,” he assured Sunny, who had pushed the door to the building open. “Let's go.” 

And Hakyeon delighted in the extra grumpy expression on Leo's face as they stepped into the dim interior and closed the door behind them. 

–

Sunny gave Hakyeon his access card and explained how to use the machine near the facility doors, and made sure to stress that the four digit code that was tied to the card was good for twenty four hours only. If Hakyeon wanted to have all access to the compound beyond simply boarding the dragon, he would need to apply for a proper training card. 

He was shown to the area where his new vine dragon had been set up. She was in a concrete pen with an open, rebar mesh covered top and did not seem very pleased by it. The dragons in the pens on either side of her were also of the green variety—a small, stout tree dragon to the right and a common forest dragon to the left who stared at Hakyeon with eyes going two different directions—and they were much calmer than his new addition. 

“She's a spitfire.” Sunny said brightly as the baby hissed and curled up into a protective ball when they approached. “You'll have your hands full.” 

Hakyeon huffed a laugh and resisted the urge to flip his hair. “Please, _I'm_ Cha Hakyeon.” Sunny laughed right along with him. 

“Of course,” she hummed. But when it was time for her to take her leave after she showed Hakyeon where the equipment room was and how to get to the training arena from where they were, he deflated and peered back down at the baby dragon. 

How was he going to pull this one off?

–

Under the guise of wanting to explore the training center some more, Hakyeon avoided taking the vine dragon out of her pen and wandered off to see what he could find. He explored the rest of the building his dragon was housed in, taking note of some of the other specimens housed there before heading through a short hallway to a hatchery. Hakyeon knew the basic mechanics of breeding and hatching dragons and while he had never attempted it himself he had always found it interesting. As he watched through the thick glass windows into a room that was essentially a giant incubator, staff bustled in and out of the room from a door on the opposite side of the window. They turned the eggs, made notes, and even rotated some clutches around. Some of the eggs were even wriggling on their own very slightly, getting ready to hatch. 

Eventually Hakyeon's travels led him to the training arena proper. There seemed to be some sort of instructional class going on so he opted to climb the stairs to the seats that looked down into the arena, and hoped he wasn't bothering anyone by doing so.

The current class that was being instructed appeared to be a group of slightly older students with adolescent dragons. They were handled well and Hakyeon was impressed by the very apparent bond between these dragons and their student-owners; it seemed likely that these students had raised and trained these dragons from hatchlings. It was nice to see.

Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention and Hakyeon turned his head in time to see two figures coming up the stairs. The first was in an outfit similar to Sunny's, so Hakyeon assumed he worked at the facility, and the second was a guy with the biggest nose he had ever seen on a person. 

Wait a second...

The facility employee seemed to be ignoring big nosed guy, who was complaining just like the first time Hakyeon saw him, presumably about the same thing, if Hakyeon had to guess. “I know you keep magicians on staff here, and I just want to talk to them.”

“They're busy, for one, and I already told you they aren't available for the general public. If you need magic help go talk to someone who runs a shop.” 

“Please, I just need someone to answer my questions...”

“No.” 

With a tired sigh, the big nosed guy stopped near Hakyeon and the worker gave Hakyeon a cursory glance as he hurried by clearly in order to get away before big nosed guy changed his mind. “So...” Hakyeon started, acknowledging the other man's presence when the silence stretched out a second too long. “Still... looking for... something?” 

“I thought you looked like the guy from the other day. Hey.” he replied, and plopped down into the seat next to Hakyeon. 

“No luck?” Hakyeon replied conversationally. 

He sighed. “Not at all. I've been running all over this city trying to find another magician to help me. I'm Jaehwan, by the way.” 

“Hakyeon.”

“Nice to meet you.” 

After pleasantries were exchanged not a whole lot else was said. Jaehwan was clearly in a bad mood and just like in the shop Hakyeon was reluctant to say anything more just in case he struck a nerve. However they were not there for long before a small voice murmured in Hakyeon's ear. 

“I want to leave now.” 

Hakyeon screeched and jumped out of his seat. Luckily the class below had broken up and the students were mingling, so he didn't feel bad about interrupting them, but _still_. “Oh my god, Leo, you can't just sneak up on people. Remember what happened last time!” 

Leo visibly frowned. “It's not my fault you got bit—”

“Shh, quiet now.” His eyes darted to Jaehwan who was looking at them curiously. “Wait, Leo, where did you get that chicken?”

“It's my friend.” He murmured as he tucked the chicken he had under one arm closer to his body protectively, as if worried Hakyeon was going to take it away from him. 

“Hey wait, that's my chicken!” Jaehwan declared and stood up to face the pair of them. “I left him outside when I came in here to talk to the sub-director because I didn't want the dragons to smell him.” 

Hakyeon suddenly felt like he was taking crazy pills. Leo found a chicken, Jaehwan owned the chicken? Why was there a chicken anyway? “Chickens can't be boys.” His mind grasped on the last thing Jaehwan said, trying to make sense of it. 

“He's my friend.” Leo insisted as if Jaehwan hadn't said anything. 

“Is... is that the same chicken from the other day?” Hakyeon recalled Leo had said something similar to him outside of the magic shop. Leo nodded affirmatively. Jaehwan looked very put out. 

“He's kidnapping my chicken!” 

Hakyeon turned to Jaehwan and slid smoothly between him and Leo. “I promise he isn't, he seems to think it's his friend. He's, you know, not all there upstairs so sometimes he fixates on funny things like chickens or rocks or—”

“His name is Ilhoon, and he says you guys are 'being ridiculous'.” A pause. “And that he'd also like to leave.” Another pause. “Away from you guys.” 

Despite the nature of the words, it was what got Jaehwan to ultimately calm down. “How did you know his name is Ilhoon? How could you know any of that?” 

“He's my friend.” Leo repeated. 

Hakyeon looked over his shoulder down into the training area and noted the students and instructor there were cleaning up before the next class, but also eyeing them with curiosity. “Here,” he moved and pushed Jaehwan at Leo. “You two go talk about the chicken outside. Just keep it down, because Leo isn't supposed to be here and I don't want to get caught.” His head was spinning; why was this suddenly his life? 

Hakyeon tried his best to tune out Jaehwan and Leo as they headed back the way Leo had come because he didn't want to hear any of that craziness. He was pretty sure he was getting a headache from either lack of food because he skipped breakfast or telepathic chickens, but Hakyeon sincerely hoped he was just hungry and hallucinating all of the past five minutes. Meanwhile the next class of trainee-trainers had filed in and arranged themselves in front of the instructor. 

“Blue dragons,” the instructor was saying as he addressed his class of ten student of trainers and their dragons, when Hakyeon finally peered down at them again. “are a little difficult to handle at first, but they warm up to it quickly as long as they are handled _consistently_. This was the first question on the test to become certified to handle blue dragons. And what did Amber do?”

“Skipped handling the dragon for a weekend...” One of the pupils spoke up after a short time while everyone else shuffled their feet and avoided their instructor's eyes. 

“Skipped handling the dragon for a weekend.” The instructor repeated, gesturing an arm at an eleventh figure Hakyeon hadn't noticed behind the instructor. Her arm was obviously bandaged and in a sling, and she did not have a dragon with her like the rest of the students. “And you all thought it better to try and hide the fact she got bit by taking her to the civilian hospital instead of the medical building here on the grounds.” When the class didn't speak up again, the instructor continued. “You do realize that the hospital reports all dragon bites to all the training centers in the city in order to monitor accidents and aid in police investigations—”

Hakyeon had been about to follow Jaehwan and Leo towards the stairs to head out, but couldn't resist butting in. Normally he wouldn't have said anything but he didn't like the tone this instructor was taking with his students. “Come on, they're just kids. They can't be any more than fifteen. Cut them some slack and quit yelling at them. They did what they thought was best.” 

The instructor turned to find the source of Hakyeon's voice and glowered when he was located. That just annoyed Hakyeon all the more. “Cutting them slack is what gets people hurt. We can't afford accidents here.” 

“They're just kids. I bet you wouldn't have any accidents at all if you were more gentle with them. Are you teaching these students to train with a firm hand too?” Hakyeon could tell he had touched a nerve just by how pink the instructor was becoming. 

“If you have a better idea for handling blue dragons I'd like to see it.” The instructor challenged him. Hakyeon shrugged and decided that today, he would rise to the occasion. A chance to show off and put this guy in his place? Lovely.

He headed for the steep, short staircase that led down into the training pit. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jaehwan and Leo pause by the door to the stairwell for the sitting area, but he paid them no mind. 

Hakyeon approached the first student, a timid looking blonde boy with a blue dragon so deeply colored it was almost purple. “May I?” he asked, holding his hand out for the dragon's lead. Gingerly the boy reached up and gave it over. Hakyeon smirked at the instructor and ushered the dragon forward with himself to the front of the students. 

As soon as Hakyeon got the dragon into the center of attention, however, he realized this was a mistake. The dragon he chose was clearly agitated at being pulled away from it's owner, and getting fidgety. Hakyeon himself was hungry and headachey. This was not going to go well. 

Gently, Hakyeon tried to calm the dragon by making soft, soothing sounds. He held a hand out, hovering it in front of the dragon's chest—it was still barely an adolescent and sort of small, so it's chest was level with Hakyeon's own, it's head only a couple feet above his. The sounds he used worked best with blue dragons, and he even had the dragon swaying a bit as it calmed. He tried to think of what he could show these students and went to place his palm against the dragon's chest to complete the soothing cycle, when the opposite of what Hakyeon wanted happened. Instead of calming completely, the dragon's eyes flew back open and it reared back with a screech when Hakyeon's hand made contact.

He dropped the lead and tried to get out of the way but he wasn't fast enough. The dragon came forward with it's foreclaws, and slashed Hakyeon right across the chest. He felt a sticky warmth bloom over his clothing, and all he heard when he fell backwards before the blackness closed in was an impossibly deep roar that couldn't have come from the blue dragon.


	9. And With A New Day Comes...

The first thing Hakyeon noticed when he became aware of himself again was the pleasant warmth of sunlight on his face. The second thing was the uncomfortable pressure of tight bandages wrapped around his chest. He didn't know how long he laid there before he opened his eyes but once he had Hakyeon found himself face to face with Wonshik, who was scowling very heavily at him.

“What exactly were you thinking?”

Hakyeon groaned. “I wasn't.” It was not often that Hakyeon actually admitted to his mistakes—a character flaw for sure—but there was no wiggling out of this one by the skin of his teeth like he usually did. He noted Wonshik's features soften a bit at this; his scowl drooping. “What happened..? After..?” 

“I'm not exactly sure of the specifics but...” Wonshik exhaled slowly as he gathered his words. “According to the instructor of the class you interrupted after that dragon got you good the chicken made a very unchicken-like sound and Leo threw it at the dragon as a distraction before vaulting into the pit and dragging you a safe distance away. The class and their dragons were herded off, the paramedics got to you quickly and now here we are.” he motioned around with a hand to indicate the hospital room. 

Hakyeon sighed and closed his eyes again. He didn't want to know what this hospital stay was going to cost them, already so low on cash. “And how long have we been here?”

“You've only been out for about a day. You're lucky you know, one of the paramedics was a magician; she was able to patch you up on the fly fast enough that you shouldn't have much scarring. The doctors told me you're going to have to take it easy though unless you want to risk pulling the cuts open again. You still needed stitches in a couple places but not the whole way through.” 

“Well thank goodness for that,” Hakyeon mumbled and began to close his eyes again when a thought occurred to him. Leo! Where was Leo? His dragon hadn't left him alone after Hakyeon had gotten bitten by the baby green; he couldn't have imagined Wonshik convinced Leo to go somewhere else? Wait, when had he started to think of Leo as “his” dragon and not simply “the” dragon? 

Wonshik had continued speaking while Hakyeon was lost in thought, apparently unaware that Hakyeon had not been listening to him in the slightest. “But all in all, you'll be alright.” Wonshik's features softened some, finally, and he reached over to put a hand on Hakyeon's arm. “Listen, I'm really glad you're okay. But you have to stop doing stupid things like this. Everything is going to catch up with you eventually and if we really want to maximize what we're going to get out of this gig—” 

“I know, I know.” Hakyeon whispered and lifted a hand to stop Wonshik right there. “I'll be more careful. Just... where's Leo?” 

“I wasn't about to let him in the hospital so that guy you were with at the center is watching him.” 

“Alright, let's go.” Hakyeon pushed himself upright into a sitting position with a small groan and protests from Wonshik which he waved away. “We can't really afford to let me stay here and rest longer, right?” he offered his partner a small smile and could tell from the look on Wonshik's face that, no, they really couldn't. “Let's go.”

–

The house Jaehwan was renting was in a nicer part of the city, a much better area than the one the small one-room studio apartments Hakyeon and Wonshik had set up shop in were located at. The trip from the hospital had tired Hakyeon out somewhat, so he was reclining on what was probably the most comfortable couch he had ever gotten the chance to sit on as he marveled at how plush it was, how nice the upholstery seemed. It probably cost more than their van. 

“I thought you had to get back to your town quickly?” Hakyeon questioned when Jaehwan returned from the kitchen with drinks for the three of them. “How did you end up going from that to renting a house here?” 

“I can't go back until my business is taken care of and if it's going to be a while then I am going to make sure I am as comfortable as possible.” Jaehwan replied, his voice lilting. 

“Must be nice,” Wonshik mumbled into his water glass. 

“What exactly is it you need to talk to a magician for so badly?” 

Jaehwan went red around the ears. “It's embarrassing to admit as a magician myself, but... My chicken, Ilhoon, he's not actually a chicken. I accidentally transmutated him trying to work out a new spell. He's really a mountain brass dragon. I need help turning him back. All my attempts have failed thus far in... certain ways. Now I just have a chicken that roars like a dragon and breathes fire.” 

Hakyeon and Wonshik could not contain their laughter at hearing this, which just made Jaehwan turn even more red. Hakyeon wrapped his arms around his midsection to keep from hurting himself too much, he was laughing that hard. 

“It's not that funny,” Jaehwan mumbled. 

“That explains a lot about Leo then,” Wonshik added once he could breathe properly again. “He seems to know Ilhoon as he was. He could tell Ilhoon isn't a chicken.” 

“Yes, having Leo the last day and a half seems to have really picked up Ilhoon's spirits a bit.” Jaehwan replied with a nod to Wonshik. Though he didn't elaborate on just how one read chicken body language to pick up on such nuances. 

Hakyeon had to fan his face for a moment and drink some water before he was grounded enough to speak again. “Actually we came to pick Leo up. We really need to be heading back.”

“Sure. They're off in the woods in the back of the property. I think they were having fun exploring and got carried away.” Jaehwan stood and made his way to the open window where he whistled three quick notes. A small chickadee flitted over from a nearby tree and landed on Jaehwan's outstretched palm. He murmured to it in a language Hakyeon didn't recognize before he urged it away and watched it fly out into the distance, presumably to deliver whatever message Jaehwan had given it. 

Though, no one was expecting Leo to turn up as fast as he did—not even a full minute and a half later—with Ilhoon tucked under his arm, suddenly looming in through the window Jaehwan had just walked away from. 

“Are we leaving now?” he asked in his tiny voice, eyes trained solely on Hakyeon. 

“Yes,” Hakyeon replied, unable to look away. 

–

By the time they had gotten to their floor of their apartment building Hakyeon was huffing and puffing, completely out of breath. “I am not made for stairs.” he grumbled to himself, waving Wonshik a quick goodbye as they passed his partner's room and continued off down the hall to his own. As soon as he had the door unlocked, however, Hakyeon found himself scooped off his feet by Leo who then carried him inside to place him gingerly on the bed. 

“I'm not broken!” he protested, as Leo went to retrieve the key from the door and lock up behind the both of them. Naturally, Hakyeon did not receive a response so he simply huffed his displeasure at being treated like a fragile doll before reclining back against his pillows. Now that he was able to relax he had to admit it did feel pretty nice...

That was short lived, however, because Leo immediately returned to the bed. He climbed up onto the mattress and knelt next to Hakyeon in order to give him a once over. Hakyeon had just cracked an eye to peek at what Leo wanted when very suddenly the dragon pulled Hakyeon's shirt up over his head, and forced his arms through the sleeves. 

“Hey!” he protested again but it fell on deaf ears. Leo tossed Hakyeon's shirt aside carelessly while Hakyeon very quickly tried to straighten his mussed hair to make sure it covered his forehead once more. “Leo I need to _rest_ , you can't be manhandling me like this...”

Again, Leo ignored him. Instead, the dragon brushed Hakyeon's hands away from his bandages and deftly began undoing them. Hakyeon continued to protest, not that it made much of a difference, because Leo was very clearly on some sort of mission he wasn't going to be deterred from. With the gauze pulled away they both finally got a look at the extent of Hakyeon's injuries. 

Hakyeon had four three centimeter wide claw marks raked along his chest from just below his right shoulder diagonally slashed across his body to the left side of his waist. The paramedic _had_ done an excellent job with the on-scene triage, because right now his wounds looked like they were at least a month old, save for a few stitches at the ends of the largest claw mark in the middle. 

Gingerly now, Leo reached out and with spread fingers, ran his fingertips over the length of the scars. “Does it hurt?” he whispered, his already tiny voice even smaller. 

Hakyeon paused for a second to consider. “Yes and no,” he finally settled on as he rolled his shoulders, to test out some movement. “If feels... tight. Like if I move too much I'll split open.” 

He watched then as Leo's fingers traveled up from the center of his chest, to his neck; the dragon's long, lithe fingers found his jaw and tilted his head back, forcing Hakyeon to look up and meet Leo's eyes. 

It was only seconds, but Hakyeon felt as if they silently looked at one another for ages before Leo leaned in and kissed him. 

Even though he had subconsciously been expecting it, Hakyeon still gasped in surprise against Leo's lips. The dragon took this opportunity to tilt his head and deepen the kiss as he gently worked their mouths together, and slowly became more insistent. Hakyeon's hands lifted and he gripped Leo's upper arms, fingers fisted in the dragon's shirt sleeves. His head was swimming, which made it difficult to discern up from down, and a warmth bloomed in the center of his chest—as if a cup of tea had spilled and was flowing over through his body. But at the same time there was a curious cool feeling he couldn't place, not that he was analyzing anything very closely with Leo kissing him like this. 

Hakyeon's arms traveled upwards and wrapped around Leo's shoulders, intent on bringing the dragon closer to him, but as quickly as the kiss had started, Leo abruptly pulled away. 

It was only then that Hakyeon thought to be embarrassed, and his already tanned skin flushed. He tried to duck his head to hide this when he caught sight of his chest once more. 

His injuries were gone. 

Not entirely, no, but faded enough that someone would have had to look really hard to see them if they didn't know he had already had them. Hakyeon knew dragons could self heal—and very quickly at that in certain situations—but no one had ever said anything before about dragons being able to extend this talent to other lifeforms. His embarrassment forgotten, Hakyeon looked up at Leo with wide eyes and an unspoken question on his lips. 

“I just didn't want you to hurt anymore,” Leo murmured as he returned a hand to Hakyeon's chest to poke at his few stitches. “I can't do anything about these, though.” 

Hakyeon flushed. “You've done more than enough.” he replied.

–

At 2am, Hakyeon found himself wide awake. Sleep definitely was not going to return tonight, of that much he was certain. He glanced down at the sleeping form of Leo next to him. Hakyeon wasn't sure just how often Leo actually slept because often enough whenever he woke up in the morning or even in the middle of the night, Leo was just sitting on the small couch across the room watching him. Hakyeon had invited Leo to share the bed with him after the first night when he discovered this—there was room enough for both of them—but Leo had simply declined with a shake of his head. The fact that he was curled up on the mattress next to Hakyeon now was surprising. He could only assume Leo parked himself there after Hakyeon had dozed off earlier.

Thinking about earlier made Hakyeon flush, and he reached up to rub his cheeks as if this would help dispel it. Leo hadn't kissed him because he wanted to kiss him, he told himself, and shook his head. Leo had wanted to help him and apparently the best way to share healing dragon magic was by mouth-to-mouth. That was all. Hakyeon ignored the little voice in the back of his head that whispered _'But what about the time in Sanghyuk's backyard?'_.

Hoping the dragon was sound asleep, Hakyeon very slowly attempted to climb around Leo's bulky form in order to get off the bed without disturbing him. He needed to get out of the apartment because everything suddenly felt very stuffy and closed in. As soon as his toes touched the floor Hakyeon was quick to pull on some proper clothing, grab his jacket and keys, and ducked outside without being noticed. 

Once he was downstairs in the night air, he exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Hakyeon felt sort of like a kid again, trying to sneak around without getting caught. Only now, who was going to bring down any sort of consequences on him? He was the master of his own destiny—Hakyeon wasn't going to let anyone stop him. Be it Leo, Wonshik, uppity dragon training instructors, big stupid blue dragons with huge claws... 

Originally Hakyeon was just going to step outside to clear his head but once he hit the sidewalk Hakyeon decided to keep going. He was feeling much better having been—for a lack of a better word—healed and was suddenly ravenous. A bit of rustling in his jacket pockets produced a couple novas, a quick glance told him it was enough for a small meal at a diner somewhere. So with that goal in mind Hakyeon set off.

Their new neighborhood was close to the industrial section of the city so finding food wasn't an issue with all the 24 hour diners and fast food joints that catered to second and third shift factory workers. Hakyeon found himself with an abundance of choices. Eventually he chose a little place that seemed less greasy than the others and headed inside. A bell jingling by the door heralded his arrival and a waitress in a pink uniform passing by with a large tray of food directed him to have a seat anywhere that was open. Hakyeon chose a smaller table out of the way and shrugged off his jacket to settle in. 

Shortly, a different waitress in pink came by to give Hakyeon a menu when she stopped at the side of the table with a gasp. “Hakyeonnie?”

Very surprised, Hakyeon glanced up from the dessert specials card he had been looking at from the other end of the table. Only one person had ever called him that nickname with any sort of consistency. “Joohyun? Seo Joohyun?” He questioned as he looked up to the dark haired waitress. Even though it had been a number of years, it was definitely her. Hakyeon hadn't seen his ex-girlfriend since she had walked out on him all those years ago. But time healed all wounds and he held no animosity towards Joohyun for her decision. He was incredibly surprised to see her here, however. “You haven't changed at all!” he declared as he stood in order to give Joohyun a hug. 

“Neither have you! Except...” she quipped and pulled back from the hug. Joohyun ran her hand from the top of her head and knocked it into Hakyeon's shoulder. “Did you get taller?” 

“Probably,” he laughed and made to take his seat once more.

Joohyun sat the menu down in front of him. “Here, have a look at this. I'm going to go cash out my other table and I'll be right back. I want to talk to you!” 

Hakyeon waved her away with a smile and settled back to mull over his choices from the menu. He chose a random breakfast platter in his price range and flagged a passing waitress down to put the order in for him while he waited for Joohyun to finish up and return. 

“Here, coffee. On the house.” Joohyun said when she came back and placed the mug down in front of Hakyeon. He specifically hadn't ordered a drink because he only had so many novas, so this wasn't something he was going to turn away, even though the coffee looked and tasted like it had been on a burner all day. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked after Joohyun had taken a seat across from him and he managed to swallow the sip of coffee. “You were living in the south when we split...”

Joohyun managed a laugh and flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder. “Oh you know, the same reason anyone else comes here. To find themselves, make some money... You know I always wanted to sing. I thought I found my chance here but it turned out to be one of those agency scams. I'm still trying to pay back the money I borrowed to pay for all the 'fees'. All that money and nothing to show for it.” 

Hakyeon pulled a face. “I'm sorry to hear that...” But Joohyun waved away his apology. 

“It is what it is now. No changing the past.” she sighed and glanced to the table before looking back up to Hakyeon. “But speaking of the past. I don't know why you're here but I'm glad I ran into you. I wanted to apologize for how I left you know, back when. I should have talked to you about my misgivings and worries instead of just moving out when you weren't home. I hear you're actually making it as a real dragon trainer now! You talked about it for a while but I never really thought...”

“It's okay.” he murmured, and offered Joohyun a small smile. “We've both moved on from that, mm? Don't worry about it.” 

“I'm sorry I didn't have more faith in you, is all. Especially after you asked it of me. I'm glad things worked out for you in the end though.” Joohyun looked as if she wanted to say more when the bell by the door jingled once again and she stood to greet the new customer. 

“Hi! Please take a seat wherever you'd prefer—”

“Actually, I'm with him.” Leo murmured, and stepped around Joohyun to slide into the space she had vacated across from Hakyeon. Joohyun gave Hakyeon a questioning glance and seemed to think better of whatever she had been about to say when she spotted the surprised expression on Hakyeon's face, murmuring about going to find a menu for the new arrival instead. 

“Leo, what are you—” But Hakyeon didn't get to finish before Leo cut him off. 

“I wish you would look at me the same way you've been looking at that girl for the last five minutes."


	10. Please, Just a Little More

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in no way family friendly. :T

“Ex—excuse me?”

“The girl. You look at her when she speaks to you. You don't look at me very often.” Leo clarified with a tilt of his head. 

Hakyeon glanced up at Leo then, now acutely aware that he had automatically turned away from the dragon with his ears burning as soon as Leo had sat down across from him. “No, I...” He paused and grasped desperately to find the right words. Except Hakyeon had no clue what the right words could possibly be. Hakyeon barely knew how to respond when someone confessed to him as a human; never mind a non-human like Leo. It was totally new to him and he needed to figure out how to handle it delicately— 

“Are you afraid?”

“What?” Hakyeon asked dumbly and his thought process came to a screeching halt. 

“Are you afraid?” Leo repeated. “Is it because I threatened to eat you? I apologize. I won't, really, you don't look like you taste good.” 

“Oh my God,” Hakyeon buried his face in his hands and dismissed Leo with a shake of his head when he heard the dragon hum a questioning sound at him. 

Hakyeon had misunderstood Leo's intentions behind his question entirely. Of course he wasn't confessing to Hakyeon. How could Leo think Hakyeon was anything but afraid when he was so jumpy around Leo all the time? And it was true—Hakyeon did often turn his eyes elsewhere when speaking to Leo. The dragon's gaze was very strong, for one thing, and for another... Hakyeon had the tendency to turn red whenever he _did_ look Leo in the eye. He felt entirely silly—of course he was the only one who was going to read into the situation like this. How could he have been so full of himself to think that Leo was outright asking him about feelings? 

After a moment or two of embarrassed silence, Hakyeon lowered his hands. “It's... it's nothing. Nevermind.” 

Joohyun chose that moment to return with a menu in hand for Leo. He accepted it without acknowledgment and simply set it aside. Joohyun arched her eyebrows at Hakyeon for an explanation but he had none for her. Instead he gave her a look, pleading that she drop it. 

“Your food will be out in a moment.” she said to Hakyeon and cast another wary glance at Leo as she scurried off. 

Leo didn't say or do anything else. The pair of them sat together silently while they waited for Hakyeon's order to arrive, and once it had Hakyeon still found himself squirming uncomfortably, with a nagging feeling at the back of his mind he couldn't place. The dragon simply watched him eat with an unwavering gaze; eyes flashing yellow. 

\--

The walk back to the apartment Hakyeon currently called home felt much longer than the walk to the diner, he observed. Probably because this time, instead of feeling light and free like he had on his way out, now he was following Leo back to the small room they shared. And Leo was not radiating a good mood.

He had obtained Leo, what, a month and a half ago? And yet he was still no closer to understanding a single damn thing about the dragon. Hakyeon scowled to himself. Maybe it would have been better if Leo just sat in that damn cage he had come in and never ever spoke, because everything that had transpired since was definitely his fault. And where did Leo get off looking so much better than everyone else as a human anyway? The dragon's shoulders seemed wider than Hakyeon's entire existence and it wasn't fair—

That train of thought ended right there with a blush, because Leo chose that exact moment to whip his head around and give Hakyeon a deeply grumpy look. The squirmy feeling was back, and Hakyeon forced himself to look away, down at his feet as they shuffled along.

Eventually they made it home just as the sun was starting to peek up over the horizon. It was probably around 5:30am and Hakyeon estimated he had gotten probably a grand total of three hours sleep. Tomorrow was not going to be a very pleasant day if he didn't get another couple hours in. Except as soon as they entered the apartment, Leo reached out and caught Hakyeon's wrist, preventing him from getting to the bed. 

“You were involved romantically with that girl,” he murmured in his tiny voice. Hakyeon didn't think he'd ever get over how un-Leo like that voice seemed. 

“So what? It was ages ago. How could you even know that anyway?”

Leo simply pursed his lips in reply and continued on as if Hakyeon had not said anything. “But you are also attracted to males of your species.” he tugged gently on Hakyeon's wrist in order to pull Hakyeon back towards himself.

Hakyeon bristled. What was Leo getting at? “There's no rule against that, you know.” 

“You are attracted to this form of mine.” 

“What?”

“Were you ever bonded with that girl?” Leo immediately changed the subject.

“ _Bonded?_ ” Hakyeon repeated as his heart thumped in his chest. What was going on? “I don't even know what that means.” He tugged his wrist a bit to test the grip Leo had on him and found that while it was gentle, it was strong. Hakyeon wasn't going anywhere unless Leo let him, apparently. 

This time when Leo tugged Hakyeon closer Hakyeon ended up pressed squarely against Leo's chest. His heart was thumping so hard he was sure Leo could feel it. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and his head felt swimmy. Hakyeon wasn't even sure if he was breathing anymore. 

“I have something I would like to discuss with you.” Leo's voice dropped further, so low that Hakyeon automatically tilted his head up to hear him better. 

But whatever that something was Leo never clarified. Instead he closed the small distance between them as he pressed his lips to Hakyeon's for the second time in a day. He kissed Hakyeon gently at first, but Hakyeon felt the driving force behind whatever was making Leo do this behind that kiss, and very quickly it became something else. 

It wasn't until Hakyeon moaned involuntarily against Leo's lips as their kiss grew stronger, more heated, that he realized Leo was holding onto him as tight as he was holding onto Leo. Nothing was _making_ Leo do this—he wanted it too. 

“Again,” Leo breathed the command against Hakyeon's lips, having broken the kiss for a fraction of a moment to speak. 

Hakyeon had no idea what Leo meant but before he could question it the dragon was kissing him once more. Leo angled his head to deepen the kiss, and drew Hakyeon's bottom lip between his own to suck on it, teasingly, promising more. Hakyeon moaned again and when Leo hummed an approving sort of sound in reply he realized that's what the dragon had meant. 

Leo swiped his tongue along the seam of Hakyeon's lips, a request that Hakyeon part them. He did so easily. Leo's tongue dipped into his mouth and Hakyeon whimpered; a needy sound. Leo's tongue was warm and as it slid teasingly along his own shivers rolled up involuntarily along Hakyeon's spine. Leo tasted so good; warm, a little spicy, and something uniquely Leo. 

The kiss broke again, but this time Hakyeon was grateful for the chance to catch his breath. The dragon scooped Hakyeon up into his arms and quickly crossed the room with him before he deposited Hakyeon on the bed—and this time Hakyeon didn't even care that was he was being manhandled. Actually, he found it made his pants even more uncomfortable in the moment. 

Leo was quick to climb on top of him, their hips pressed together in such a way that sent Hakyeon's head spinning. Automatically he arched up against Leo, urging him for more contact, but the dragon either didn't understand or was ignoring Hakyeon's silent plea. Instead Leo's hands were pulling at Hakyeon's shirt, up up up, until he pulled the garment off of Hakyeon entirely. 

“I thought you had something you wanted to talk to me about.” Hakyeon panted, embarrassed he was already so wound up and half naked when Leo hovering above him seemed barely ruffled. In fact if it weren't for Leo's kiss swollen lips, Hakyeon would have thought he had imagined the past few minutes.

“Showing you is better.” Leo replied softly, as he watched his own hand travel down the length of Hakyeon's body. Leo's fingertips ghosted over the sinewy lines of Hakyeon's long neck, across his collarbone, and then down his chest. Leo's long, lithe fingers found one of Hakyeon's nipples and he pinched it before rolling it teasingly between his thumb and forefinger. 

Hakyeon cried out, arching his chest off the mattress some. Leo apparently liked this reaction, as far as Hakyeon could tell; he thought he caught sight of a small smirk as the dragon leaned in to press soft kisses to Hakyeon's sternum. Leo then worked his lips to Hakyeon's neglected nipple, drawing it in between his lips and nipping it lightly with his teeth. 

“Please don't tease me,” Hakyeon hissed through clenched teeth. “If we're going to do this just...” _Just fuck me already._ That's what he wanted to say, wasn't it? 

Leo leaned back up without a word and shifted down some. He made very quick work of the button and zipper of Hakyeon's jeans and before he knew it, Leo had tugged the fabric down his thighs along with his boxers, leaving Hakyeon exposed before him. Hakyeon's cock was so embarrassingly hard, curved up towards his belly. Really, normally Hakyeon wasn't this easy—or so he'd like to think—but it had been ages and ages since anyone touched him and... well...

The dragon shifted away then and it took Hakyeon a moment to realize Leo had moved to pull his own clothing off, so he took the opportunity to push his pants and boxers the rest of the way down and kick them off, not caring a wit where they landed. 

Leo's back was to Hakyeon as he pulled off his shirt, and he found himself admiring the lines of Leo's back. The muscles, the curves of his shoulder blades, the breadth of his body. Truly, Leo was a beautiful creature. Hakyeon bit his bottom lip. In the back of his mind, a little voice whispered to Hakyeon that they shouldn't be doing this—Leo wasn't even human—but he promptly told that voice to go fuck itself. Human or not, Hakyeon didn't care right now. He needed Leo badly, preferably inside of him.

Leo turned his head to glance back at Hakyeon, obviously giving him a long once over; up and down. Hakyeon knew how he must of looked laying there with his legs thrown apart haphazardly, cock on display, his skin flushed. But he didn't care, he didn't have it in him to be embarrassed just then. He just wanted to entice Leo back to bed with him. 

But when the dragon made no immediate attempts to move, Hakyeon squirmed under his gaze. “I want you.” he murmured. “I want more.” Leo silently glanced off across the room with an unspoken question and Hakyeon hazarded a guess as to what he wanted. “My lube is in the blue pack in the corner. Next to the dresser.” 

He had barely finished speaking the words before Leo padded away, taking no time at all to locate the small bottle that Hakyeon was talking about. He reapproached the bed, and dropped the bottle on Hakyeon's chest for his inspection, but Hakyeon was paying no attention to it at all, because Leo was finally taking his pants off. The fabric dropped to the floor and pooled around the dragon's ankles, and Hakyeon was delighted to see that Leo was just as hard as he was. But wow, he was going to be jealous about those thighs later.

Leo climbed back onto the bed and knocked Hakyeon's knees apart in order to crawl between his legs once more. He took the lube and dispensed a generous amount into his palm, slicking his fingers as he dropped his hand between Hakyeon's legs. With a sound that could only be described as a longing whimper, Hakyeon spread his legs further for Leo. 

Leo's fingers were cold initially because of the lube but they warmed quickly as they explored. He glanced up at Hakyeon and it was apparent to him that Leo was trying very hard to keep his composure, to go slow. Hakyeon waved for Leo to go ahead. And when the dragon pressed the first finger gently into Hakyeon, that's when he noticed Leo's eyes turn their solid yellow. And this time they stayed yellow. 

That was a little unnerving; it only served to remind Hakyeon what he was doing. Leo wasn't human but he was going to let Leo fuck him anyway. His heart rate picked up, and not just because of his arousal. 

The first finger was followed quickly by a second that set Hakyeon squirming. Leo's gentleness was appreciated initially, but Hakyeon wasn't someone that needed to be handled with care all of the time. He moaned, trying to entice Leo into moving his fingers faster, shifting his hips to fuck himself on those digits. In response, Leo simply added a third finger to stretch Hakyeon in all directions, his wrist continuing to pump those fingers steadily. 

Hakyeon's pulse was pounding in his ears, the fire burning in his belly growing ever hotter with every movement Leo's hand made. “Please!” he moaned again, throwing his head back. It felt like his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. 

It was only then that Leo finally pulled his hand away, replacing them instead with the head of his cock. He teased Hakyeon again, despite the pleas not to, rubbing up against Hakyeon while he clearly coated himself with the last bit of lube left on his palm.

Hakyeon opened his mouth to beg Leo again, but before he could get the words out Leo finally thrust into him with a soft, longing sigh. 

A shiver rocketed up Hakyeon's spine and he threw his head back with another moan. Finally having Leo inside of him was better than he could have hoped for. Leo leaned forward, propping himself up over Hakyeon with an arm resting on the mattress by Hakyeon's head. He nibbled at Hakyeon's throat. Leo's lips sought out a pulse point to suck a hickey onto as his hips began to move. 

But Leo was moving much too slow for Hakyeon's liking. This was the first time he had sex in ages and ages and he wanted to be thoroughly and properly fucked. He wrapped his arms around the dragon's shoulders, raking his nails along Leo's back, moaning in his ear; anything Hakyeon could think of to try and spur Leo on. 

Leo sighed as Hakyeon writhed beneath him, clearly enjoying himself, but Hakyeon felt like he was going to fall apart at the seams. “Leo please!” he cried out, sure on some level that Leo was enjoying making Hakyeon ask for every little bit Leo gave him. “I need more! I can't go on like this!” 

Hakyeon wrapped his legs around Leo's waist, shifting his hips. Anything to get Leo to go faster, harder. His body was trembling all over with need, and his cock was so hard. He could feel the precum leaking against his abdomen. 

The dragon fucked into Hakyeon harder then, thrusting faster too. Hakyeon sighed in a mixture of relief and longing, but just to help things along he shifted a hand between them to grasp himself. He pumped his cock in time with Leo's thrusts until Leo noticed, at which point the dragon bat Hakyeon's hand away and replaced it with his own. 

Now all Hakyeon had to do was lay back, hands finding their way back up around Leo's shoulders. He raked at the skin again, over the welts he could feel he had left before. Leo was groaning in Hakyeon's ear, deeper than expected, and Hakyeon's whole body tensed. 

It was obvious that Hakyeon was creeping ever closer to his orgasm, as his body lost all finesse. He bucked up against Leo's hand, he thrust his hips back to meet Leo's own. His nails dug into Leo's shoulders. He was an uncoordinated mess. And just when Hakyeon thought he wasn't going to be able to take it any longer, Leo sought out that pulse point on Hakyeon's neck once more to bite down on it gently. 

Hakyeon cried out Leo's name as he came, his entire body locked up and shuddering. Leo kept moving his hips until it seemed as if Hakyeon's orgasm had wound down, and he pulled himself out of Hakyeon. 

Dazed, Hakyeon whimpered at the loss of feeling Leo inside of him. The dragon was quick to take one of Hakyeon's hands and guide it to his cock. “Please,” Leo whispered. It took only a few moments, but Hakyeon jerked Leo off to completion, and when the dragon came it was with another deep moan. 

They were a sticky, sweaty mess. Hakyeon had both Leo's and his own cum on his belly, and on his hand. This fact didn't seem to bother either one of them however, when Leo stretched himself back out on top of Hakyeon, drawing him close; holding him. Leo pressed several kisses along the length of Hakyeon's jaw. His clean hand cradled Hakyeon's face, thumb swiping gently over the apple of his cheek.

“Leo,” Hakyeon murmured after a moment, having caught his breath enough to speak. 

Leo pulled back in order to look down at Hakyeon. His eyes were still solid yellow and Hakyeon wasn't actually sure what exactly that meant but figured he didn't want to question it just then. There were other, more pressing topics they needed to talk about.

“Taekwoon,” Leo replied. 

“Wh—what?”

“My name is Taekwoon.”


	11. Tough Choices

Hakyeon wondered idly just how long one needed to frequent a business to be considered a regular patron. He had been returning to the same diner his ex worked at for the past week for lack of anything better to do under the guise of needing to get out of the house while he healed. The doctors had warned him against strenuous physical activity while he still had his stitches in and even though they were due out any day now Hakyeon was absolutely milking that excuse for all it was worth if it kept him away from the training center a little longer. Though if his romp with Leo—Taekwoon?—hadn't messed with them, well, they were probably okay. 

The coffee here was awful.

Hakyeon sighed and rest his elbows on the table with his chin cushioned in his palms as he looked down at the mug of coffee set before him. He ordered it every time he came in because it was the cheapest thing on the menu and it gave him a legitimate reason to hang out for a while. But there was only so much of it Hakyeon could drink before he was sure his insides were going to turn as black as the thick liquid. 

Truthfully, he couldn't stand being at home alone with Taekwoon. After their... tryst, Taekwoon had become oddly distant and wouldn't even look at Hakyeon once he had woken up the next day. He didn't respond to anything Hakyeon said, any name Hakyeon used to get his attention, and the silence was incredibly uncomfortable. When he was at home, Hakyeon constantly felt like there was a fog in his head and none of his thoughts felt like his own as he tried to sort out what he felt about everything. 

“Taekwoon,” The dragon had said. “My name is Taekwoon. At least in your language... that's how you would say it.” 

“What is it in—?” Hakyeon realized suddenly he didn't know what dragon language was actually called, if it had a proper name at all.

“ _Drosumkor_. My name would be pronounced _'Iayim'_.” 

Hakyeon didn't even know how he would wrap his throat around the guttural sounds that Taekwoon produced when the dragon spoke his own language and Hakyeon wasn't sure he wanted to try. “I'll just call you Taekwoon, then.” 

Taekwoon seemed content with this, since he didn't protest, and simply curled around Hakyeon as they settled in to sleep. But by the time Hakyeon woke up Taekwoon had left him alone in bed and taken up his usual spot on the couch. 

The coffee in front of Hakyeon had cooled enough that it was probably safe to drink but that meant he had to taste it instead of scalding his taste buds off for the umpteenth time in the last few days. He honestly wasn't sure what was more preferable at this point. 

Hakyeon's cellphone vibrated on the table causing him to start in surprise. Wonshik had topped off their pre-paid plan at some point recently which was both a blessing and a curse. Now Hakyeon had his phone available again! But that also meant Wonshik expected him to be available all of the time whenever he messaged. 

“What do you want..?” he mumbled and flipped the screen up. 

_I turn around for two minutes and you disappear? Where you at?_

Hakyeon tilted his head at this. He had been out of the apartment all day. In fact, he was pretty sure Wonshik had seen him leave. Hakyeon texted Wonshik back as such. A moment or two later his phone buzzed again, and this time Hakyeon wasted no time before checking the message. 

_Come back, now._

Hakyeon wasn't super far away from their building, but it still took him a good twenty minutes to walk back even at a brisk pace. When he did arrive, he was surprised to find Wonshik out front, pacing the short area in front of the stairs, back and forth. The second the younger man spotted Hakyeon he hurried over and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Are his cuffs on?” Wonshik demanded, his eyebrows furrowed deeply. 

“What?”

“The cuffs, Leo's cuffs. Is he wearing them?”

What kind of question was that? Hakyeon hurried all the way back for this? And Wonshik hadn't even given him a chance to catch his breath before throwing questions at him. “Of course, I don't take them off of him.” 

“He's using magic anyway!” 

“That's impossible. The cuffs are charmed. That's what they're _for_.” 

Wonshik drew back slightly and pointed back at the building behind him. Hakyeon glanced up and followed the moment with his eyes. “He's up there right now doing something he should not be able to do.” 

Hakyeon reached up and gently pat Wonshik's cheek. “Have you been sleeping well?” 

“Don't give me that shit. I went into your room to see if you were back and you were sleeping. Leo said you were tired and not to disturb you. Not even a minute later I came back to drop off a couple things figuring it would be fine if I let myself in because I was just going to be a second and... _you_ were gone and _he_ was looking at me like he saw a goddamn ghost.” 

None of that made sense in the slightest to Hakyeon. “Come on, we're going to go upstairs right now and I'll show you his cuffs are still on and that whatever you're talking about him doing is impossible.”

As they headed up the stairs to their floor, Hakyeon began to doubt his claim with each step. Wonshik wasn't usually wrong about... well, pretty much anything. Yeah he talked like he had a mouthful of marbles, but for all his appearances Wonshik was a pretty competent partner. What if he wasn't wrong about this? 

Hakyeon hesitated outside of his door for half a second before Wonshik pushed past him and headed into the room first. Taekwoon was sitting in his usual spot on the couch, with his legs tucked up. He glanced at the pair of them as they entered but otherwise seemed completely disinterested. 

“Can I have your wrist please?” Hakyeon murmured, and held out a hand towards Taekwoon. The dragon lifted his arm without complaint and presented it to Hakyeon, who in turn waved it at Wonshik. “See? Cuffs are on.” He tugged on the thick band of metal gently to demonstrate that it was secured properly, otherwise it would have detached.

“I'm telling you, there's something fucked up going on in here.” Wonshik spat in reply, not entirely convinced. 

Hakyeon scurried over to his partner and hustled Wonshik back into the hall. “Listen,” he dropped his voice to a whisper and glanced over his shoulder back into the small apartment at Taekwoon. “If something weird is going on let me take care of it, okay? I'll let you know what's up in a bit. Just go chill out.” 

Wonshik was not pleased but he headed off the short distance down the hall to his own place and Hakyeon made sure he was inside before he turned around to do the same. Once the door was shut, Taekwoon lifted his head and really looked at Hakyeon for the first time in what felt like ages. 

“You're distressed.” 

Hakyeon frowned. Distressed? That was not exactly the word he'd have chosen to describe his mood at the moment. Wonshik was getting on his nerves and he was annoyed Taekwoon had been ignoring him, but there was no helping that—

“I am sorry I was ignoring you.”

How was it that Taekwoon always seemed to do that whenever he thought—

“Sorry, I'll stop.” 

Hakyeon threw up his arms. “What is going on right now?” 

Taekwoon at least had it in him to look sheepish when he began speaking again, the silence between them stretching on for several more moments than was comfortable before the dragon broke it. “I'm sorry. I don't usually mean to, but you just think so loud some times I can't help but overhear and...” 

“I _think_ loud?” Hakyeon repeated, wanting to make sure he heard Taekwoon correctly. And once the implication of the statement hit him Hakyeon felt himself turn what was probably the brightest red he had ever been. He suddenly found himself wishing he could sink through all the floors of the building and into the ground to the lowest layer of Hell. “You can read minds.” he whispered, horrified. 

Taekwoon didn't deny it. He simply ducked his head and stared at his lap, unable to meet Hakyeon's eyes. “I wasn't exactly keeping it a secret.” Taekwoon murmured in his own defense. “How else did everyone think I was communicating with Ilhoon? You're just too loud to ignore sometimes; I'm not supposed to intentionally listen in to someone's thoughts. It's quite taboo...” 

Suddenly several moments over the past few weeks made much, much more sense to Hakyeon. Every time Taekwoon would turn to look at him from a distance away whenever Hakyeon prepared to call out for him, the way the dragon snapped to attention any time Hakyeon started to check Taekwoon out in any fashion. The sluggish thoughts and uncomfortable squirmy feelings in the back of his head when he started to brood. Taekwoon had been poking around _in his brain_.

“Dragons can't read minds.” Hakyeon groaned out from behind his hands, covering his face. 

“No. We can't. It's a gift very, very few have.”

Hakyeon took a moment to digest this and when he finally dropped his hands he found Taekwoon looking back at him intently. “What are you?” Hakyeon whispered.

Taekwoon offered Hakyeon a pained smile and replied in his tiny, sweet voice. “Nothing good.”

–

“I fucked up, I fucked up really bad, Wonshik.” Hakyeon moaned painfully and flopped backwards onto his partner's bed. 

Wonshik, for his part, stood in the center of the room looking incredibly exasperated. “Just tell me what the hell is happening.” 

Hakyeon had not prolonged the conversation with Taekwoon after the dragon answered his final question with another cryptic response. Instead Hakyeon had turned right around, concentrated on breathing to clear his mind, and marched down the hall directly to Wonshik. 

“I didn't find out what happened with you exactly, but he just told me—” Hakyeon paused. It sounded ridiculous to say out loud to Wonshik, even if Wonshik was just insisting Taekwoon had been using magic. “—that he can... you know, read minds.” 

Wonshik didn't respond. He simply stood in front of Hakyeon with his arms folded, and a very deep scowl etched onto his features. 

Hakyeon gave Wonshik a moment to absorb that but not long enough to form a response in case he wanted to refute it for who knew what reason. “I believe him, and if he can do that I suspect whatever happened between you and him earlier was something Taekwoon was doing in your mind too—” 

“Taekwoon?”

There was a long silence where Hakyeon mentally berated himself for screwing up again. He hadn't meant to reveal Taekwoon's real name to Wonshik until the dragon had said it was okay to do so, figuring it would be the best course of action, but he was so flustered at the moment it just slipped out. “That's his name. His real one.” Hakyeon murmured and closed his eyes. Why did he feel like he wanted to cry?

“He told you his name too?” Wonshik asked, incredulous, his concern with the dragon magic set aside in favor of curiosity for half a moment. 

Hakyeon sighed and sat up, finally looking at Wonshik. It was probably time to be truthful with him; Hakyeon owed their friendship that much. “He told me a week ago. After I slept with him.” 

“...you fucked him. Fucking hell, Hakyeon?” Wonshik burst out, throwing his arms wide. “What the hell is wrong with you lately? Is there something you're not telling me? Ever since the convention where you picked his ass up without consulting me first you've been even more of an impulsive mess than usual!” 

“I know, I'm sorry. I—”

“Are you really? Do you think about the consequences before you do anything? Have you ever considered how the stupid shit you pull affects me? I put up with a lot of crap from you, Hakyeon, and these last few weeks have been nothing short of a goddamn mess.” Wonshik's voice rose steadily louder as berated Hakyeon, and he began ticking off incidents on his fingers. “You buy a goddamn dragon we're not equipped to keep. So then we had to buy a shitty van that did nothing but eat into our savings with all the repairs we had to put into it. You made me drive across the desert at _his_ request. We got stuck in a sandstorm. You led us in circles around the city looking for expensive magic we couldn't afford and then spent the rest of our savings on it!”

Hakyeon pursed his lips together and ducked his head. He didn't want Wonshik to see his eyes filling with tears. “I needed it.” he choked out. “I caught the vine dragon.” 

“You haven't used ninety-nine percent of what you bought. And yeah you caught a useless vine dragon. If you train it we'll make maybe what, a tenth of what you spent on that magic back? And that's if you ever get around to doing anything with the damn thing because you had to go and land yourself in the hospital immediately after—”

“That wasn't my fault!” 

“Everything that has happened since we left the convention has been your fault!” Wonshik roared, but finally ran out of steam and dropped his arms. His chest was heaving. 

The air between the two of them was heavy. Hakyeon sat silently and stared resolutely at his lap, watching his fingers twist and untwist on themselves, sniffling every once and again. He didn't know how many minutes ticked by, how long they remained there still as statues. Hakyeon knew that he needed to say something, anything, except the only words that came to mind sounded cheap and probably wouldn't have helped. In the end, it was Wonshik who spoke first. 

“We need to get rid of him.” 

“No!” Hakyeon's head shot up and he looked to Wonshik with red rimmed eyes. “We can't, he's...”

“We have to.” Wonshik insisted softly, but firmly. “We can't keep Leo, Hakyeon. We don't have the resources, and he's dangerous. Nevermind the fact you slept with him, which you know isn't kosher. He messed around in both our heads.” 

“But...” The tears that had been threatening to spill over finally did, and Hakyeon blinked rapidly to clear them out of his lashes. They rolled down his cheeks and he made no effort to wipe them away as he stared at Wonshik. Hakyeon didn't know what was best for either of them right now but he knew he didn't want to give Taekwoon up, dangerous or not. 

When Hakyeon didn't say anything further, Wonshik continued. “Either he goes or I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little shorter than normal, but I thought a shorter chapter sooner would be better than pushing it off until I felt like it was long enough. 
> 
> Fun bit of trivia: Taekwoon's dragon name was made by taking the Chinese readings of the hanja for his real name and translating them into dragon language. 
> 
> Come bug me on [ask.fm](http://ask.fm/importantgalaxydefendor) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/Iemonsquares)!


	12. Out of Sorts

“Is... Is this a bad time?” came a voice from the door. Both Hakyeon and Wonshik spun around to face it; surprised and embarrassed that in all the commotion neither one of them had realized they accidentally left the door to Wonshik's apartment open. In the open space stood Sanghyuk, a torn envelope in hand. 

“Hey, kiddo,” Wonshik was the first to get over his initial surprise and motioned the young man in. Hakyeon, for his part, turned away and ran his hands over his face in an effort to make himself look some sort of presentable. But no matter what he did, he was sure the fact he had been crying was apparent. 

Sanghyuk stepped into the room and appeared to be taking stock of the situation before he spoke again. “Really, if this isn't a good time I can come back...” 

“No, no. Now's fine.” Wonshik insisted and motioned for Sanghyuk to have a seat on one of the two mismatched chairs at a tiny square table that made up Wonshik's sorry excuse for a breakfast set. He cast a firm look at Hakyeon, who wasn't exactly sure how he was to read into it, but if it meant Wonshik was going to stop yelling at him for the time being Hakyeon would gladly take a distraction in the form of Sanghyuk. 

Sanghyuk wriggled in his seat uncomfortably. “I found this in my letterbox at the center today.” he murmured, motioning to the envelope he had placed on the table in front of himself. “And I'm really not sure what it even means.” 

Wonshik reached across the table and pulled the contents from the torn envelope. It appeared to be a simple piece of lined notebook paper torn straight from the notebook; the fringe was still attached to it. In the center of the page written in large block letters with permanent marker read the message:

> **RELEASE HIM.  
> ** **THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES OTHERWISE.**  
>  **YOU HAVE BEEN INFORMED.**  
>  **SWIFT COOPERATION IS ADVISED.**

“That's a little... movie villain, isn't it?” Wonshik quirked an eyebrow at the paper and tossed it back on top of the table.

Hakyeon's interest was piqued, and he joined the others at the table to get a better look at the message as well. “Do they mean Hongbin?” he wondered aloud with a tilt of his head, as if looking at the paper from another angle would reveal it's secrets. 

“I'd guess so, but why?” Sanghyuk frowned. 

“It's probably just other trainers fucking with the new kid,” Wonshik dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “Everyone gets hazed at some point. No one would write a note like this with any serious intent. It's way too campy.”

“Let's say for a minute they were serious. Why Hongbin? He's completely harmless.” Hakyeon countered. 

Sanghyuk squirmed uncomfortably. “Whether or not they're serious I just don't really feel comfortable with it...” 

Wonshik's features softened and he reached across the table to give Sanghyuk's elbow a squeeze. “Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to dismiss your feelings or anything. If you're uncomfortable, we'll take care of it.” he tossed a quick confirmation glance at Hakyeon who nodded. 

“Thanks guys...” Sanghyuk seemed to visibly relax a fraction, and rest back in his seat. “I just was expecting a message from my dad when I noticed I had mail. Not this sort of thing.” 

“Should we have Leo look at it?” Hakyeon asked as he reached to pull the sheet of paper towards himself for another look. “There might be something he can see that we can't.”

“No.” Wonshik's response was immediate. 

“The envelope doesn't have any postage on it. Someone at Sanghyuk's training center or with access to the facility put this in his letterbox.” Hakyeon countered. 

Sanghyuk quickly picked up the envelope and looked it over. “You're right. I hadn't even noticed...” 

Wonshik simply puffed his cheeks out before he exhaled quickly. Hakyeon knew that meant Wonshik wasn't going to argue with what Hakyeon wanted to do, but given what they had just been arguing about moments before maybe it would be better if Hakyeon didn't do anything extra to piss Wonshik off. He hesitated for a fraction of a moment before he went for the door. This was about Sanghyuk, not Wonshik. 

Hakyeon found Taekwoon exactly where he had left the dragon—on the couch in his apartment. Taekwoon lifted his head when Hakyeon entered the room but he didn't look at Hakyeon directly. There were several heartbeats of silence, but just as Hakyeon opened his mouth to speak Taekwoon beat him to it. 

“I was just trying to help earlier. I thought Wonshik would be cross with you for going out while you're still healing so I just tried to—”

“Yeah, we're going to talk about that later and you're going to tell me exactly what the hell happened, but right now I need you to come look at something for me.” Hakyeon cut him off and motioned for Taekwoon to follow. 

Clearly curious, Taekwoon got up and followed Hakyeon, albeit at a short distance. Hakyeon explained over his shoulder at the dragon what the situation was and ushered him into Wonshik's apartment before following. 

The atmosphere tensed immediately as Taekwoon walked in, to the point where Sanghyuk had picked up on it and was visibly confused. Hakyeon just smiled as best he could to pretend things were fine, while Wonshik sat with his arms folded and eyes trained on the table in front of himself. Taekwoon stepped to the table to join everyone else and nodded at Sanghyuk to acknowledge him. 

“ _Uroakomear,_ ” Sanghyuk murmured at Taekwoon in greeting.

“ _Diroa._ ” was the reply from the dragon. 

Hakyeon looked between the two of them. Of course he had assumed Sanghyuk knew basic commands in dragon language from either his sister, or research of his own, but he never really expected the younger man to have a working knowledge of the language. Even if it was just for greetings. 

“Languages everyone speaks, please.” Wonshik grumbled. 

“This is the note,” Hakyeon interjected as he came up next to Taekwoon and pointed to the letter. “Is there anything you can tell us about it?” 

Taekwoon picked up the letter and turned it over and over in his hands, ostensibly giving it a good look. After a moment he set it back down. “It's paper.”

“Er,” Hakyeon cast a glance at Wonshik who had finally looked up and then looked back to Taekwoon. “Yes. But we were hoping there might be something else, anything else, you can tell us about it. You know, because...” he trailed off lamely.

Taekwoon gave Hakyeon a firm look. “Clairtangency is not an ability I possess.”

“Clair-what?”

“You know, psychometry.” Sanghyuk supplied. “Knowing stuff or learning something about a person or thing just from touching something they've touched before.” 

Hakyeon blinked. That was the first he had ever heard of that sort of thing, but then he wasn't really well versed in magical abilities to begin with. “Fine,” he sighed and pointed to the note again. “Then what are we going to do about this meanwhile?”

“Until we know what's going on I think it would be best if we got Hongbin out of the training center boarding.” Wonshik stated. 

Sanghyuk shook his head. “I need him for the lessons.”

Instantly, Hakyeon's eyes lit up. “Why don't you borrow the vine dragon I caught recently? It needs the most basic training, which is what you're working on now, right? Why not challenge yourself? Since Hongbin is already complacent?” 

Wonshik narrowed his eyes at Hakyeon as he was speaking, but Sanghyuk brightened with a smile immediately. “That's a great idea! Should I go get Hongbin now and bring him here?” Hakyeon nodded and Sanghyuk hopped up. 

“I'll come with you.” Wonshik stood as well, and circled around Hakyeon and Taekwoon to join Sanghyuk, a hard look on his face directed at Hakyeon the entire time. 

“I'll meet you downstairs!” Sanghyuk called over his shoulder as he hustled out the door. 

“Pawning the dragon off on the kid, really?” 

Hakyeon spread his arms wide. “What do you want me to do? You were just harping on earlier about me not training the poor thing. Excuse me for taking an opportunity when it presented itself.”

Wonshik just shook his head again, finished tying his shoes, and headed out without another word to Hakyeon. 

–

Back in Hakyeon's small apartment, Taekwoon made a beeline for the couch once again and Hakyeon, utterly exhausted both emotionally and physically, went straight for the bed. He flopped over with an unceremonious groan and curled up on his side. But the relief was short lived, because he forced himself to sit back up and address Taekwoon sitting across from him. “Hey. What were you going to say earlier?”

Taekwoon blinked passively at Hakyeon momentarily and took a deep, slow breath before beginning to speak again. “I was trying to help,” he murmured in his small voice. “I noted you were not keen on returning to training while you've been recuperating, but still going out everyday. I thought Wonshik would be upset with you for... slacking, so I... overstepped some boundaries.” 

“I want specifics, Taekwoon.” Hakyeon replied firmly, his eyebrows furrowed deeply.

The dragon tilted his head and seemed to be considering his words carefully. “My ability. It goes both ways. I can read feelings and thoughts as they're being projected, especially if they're loud like in your case, but I can also influence those thoughts.

“Basically whenever Wonshik came in here and you weren't here, I simply made him believe you were here and asleep. Except earlier he came in unexpectedly right after leaving again and I was caught off guard. I am sorry, I wasn't attempting to cause trouble or anything. I was simply trying to look out for _you_. I knew you were still... processing the things that have happened and needed time.”

“What about your cuffs? Have you worked out how to take them off?”

“They are effective against magic, up to and including preventing me from changing back into my proper form, but this sort of ability isn't the same type of magic. It's more like a mutation if we were to get technical. The cuffs don't compensate for that.”

Hakyeon was silent while he processed this information. The whole being able to muck around in others' minds aside, what Taekwoon had done was sort of sweet, in a way. There was still the troubling fact that the cuffs he had on Taekwoon clearly did nothing to stop the dragon from being able to do this sort of thing, though. This was also probably the most he had even heard Taekwoon speak for the entire time he had known him.

“Wonshik is really upset.” Hakyeon replied after a moment of silence stretched between them. 

“I am aware.” Taekwoon murmured back. 

Hakyeon swallowed hard. “He wants me to turn you out. He said it's you or him.” he paused. “And I'm not ready to lose him, Taekwoon. Wonshik has been with me for a couple years now, and he does a lot for me. I know I don't appreciate him like I should. I know I've been an awful friend to him but...” 

The dragon lifted himself from the couch in one smooth motion and moved the short distance across the room to join Hakyeon on the bed. When Hakyeon didn't immediately dismiss him, Taekwoon brought up his arms in order to wrap them around Hakyeon, who found himself cradled gently against the dragon's broad chest. “What do you want?”

“In an ideal world I'd get to keep you both.” 

“Pretend this isn't an ideal world.”

Hakyeon curled further into Taekwoon's chest; his fingers fisted into the fabric of the dragon's shirt. “Do you think Wonshik will really leave?” he asked instead. 

Taekwoon shook his head. “No.”

“Can I ask for a favor?” Hakyeon pulled back from Taekwoon in order to look up at him. Taekwoon didn't reply, but he looked at Hakyeon curiously, so he simply took that as a yes and continued on. “Kiss me again.”

Taekwoon's facial expression didn't change at all, but somehow Hakyeon knew that the dragon was pleased by this request. He closed his eyes and tilted his face up expectantly, and when Taekwoon's lips were pressed against his own, Hakyeon couldn't help the smile that quirked up the corners of his lips. Hakyeon didn't even try to resist the urge that bubbled up inside of him; he swiped his tongue along the seam of Taekwoon's lips, demanding the dragon part them for him and as soon as he was granted entrance he dipped his tongue into Taekwoon's mouth. A delicious shiver worked it's way up Hakyeon's spine and he moaned out against Taekwoon's lips. Taekwoon was warm, perhaps a little more than a human would be, Hakyeon figured, and he tasted of citrus, spice, and something uniquely Taekwoon. With a soft sigh, Hakyeon angled his head to better lock their lips together as he kissed Taekwoon deeply, unwilling to pull away until his head was swimming entirely and he desperately needed air. 

When they parted, Hakyeon glanced up at Taekwoon's face for half a second before he glanced away with his ears burning. That quick look was just long enough to have caught the dragon licking his lips. He didn't know what it was, but Hakyeon knew if Taekwoon kissed him that he would feel much better over all. And he was not disappointed.

“I'll... talk to Wonshik.”

“Mm,” Taekwoon hummed, pleased.


	13. Crazy (Guilty Pleasure)

After a couple of weeks of silence, with no indication in any direction what the letter Sanghyuk had received could have possibly referred to, Hakyeon and Wonshik chalked it up to the other trainees at Sanghyuk's training center being a bunch of idiots for a laugh and dismissed it.

Regardless, Hongbin remained with Hakyeon and Wonshik. As a first year trainee Sanghyuk was only allowed to board one dragon of his own at the training center, and currently his slot was being occupied by Hakyeon's small green vine dragon. Hakyeon had offered to take her back and swap Hongbin in, but Sanghyuk refused, because he enjoyed his new challenge. “She's only bitten me three times!” Sanghyuk had declared the last time Hakyeon had spoken to him about the dragons. “I think she likes me.” 

So Hongbin had been spending the majority of his time with Taekwoon and Hakyeon, only returning to Wonshik's apartment at night to sleep because there was barely enough room in Hakyeon's apartment for two bodies, never mind three. Hakyeon was grateful for that too; as of late Taekwoon had been spending fewer nights on the couch and more time sharing the bed with him. 

Hakyeon came back to his apartment one afternoon and discovered Taekwoon and Hongbin sitting on the floor across from one another, talking about something or other Hakyeon couldn't understand. He was getting better at picking out individual words of the language the dragons shared, but Hakyeon still had zero idea of how to make heads or tails of it. Which in itself was a pain in the ass because while Hongbin could very easily speak human common tongue, he rarely did so unless Taekwoon wasn't available and he needed something from Hakyeon.

“ _Kickim ckureyo? Vethr throth varckum..?_ ” Hongbin asked in a hushed voice and leaned forward towards Taekwoon with wide eyes. Taekwoon was busy fiddling with something in his hands and didn't even look up at Hongbin as Hakyeon scooted around the pair of them in order to get to his bed. 

“Mm,” Taekwoon simply hummed an affirmative. Hongbin then turned to give Hakyeon a questioning, leery look, and glanced back to Taekwoon. Hakyeon suddenly had the sneaking suspicion they were talking about _him_.

Hongbin huffed a small sound that was probably a laugh. “ _Jemjjo? Vry?_ ”

“ _Dimoms rosu ckevuaussaum..._ ”

“ _Saa. Thram, vraocka rarva ka. Bacoicka e reda Wonshik._ ” 

Or maybe they weren't. Hakyeon tilted his head, making it no secret he was listening in, though he supposed it didn't matter one way or another to either of the dragons. He dropped his bag on the bed and pulled out a couple items, setting them aside. He didn't need them just now, and since he was planning on heading back out in a bit Hakyeon didn't want to be carrying around extra things to just make his bag heavier and his life harder. 

“I am going to go to the training center for a little while to do some paperwork and then pick up something for dinner on the way back. Do you guys want anything in particular?” He asked when there was a lull in the dragons' conversation. 

Taekwoon and Hongbin exchanged a long glance before Taekwoon looked up at Hakyeon. “I would like to try the 'pizza' item again.”

–

Wonshik was not surprised to see his apartment was dark and empty when he arrived home—Hongbin usually didn't come back until late. But he was grateful for some quiet after dealing with people all day. Wonshik had picked up a small part-time job since Hakyeon still wasn't working on _literally anything_ and they had no money coming in; what else was he supposed to do? They needed to pay rent and buy food somehow. Wonshik didn't have any skills he could put towards training a dragon himself nor was he willing to claim something he wasn't, so really a part-time job was his only option until Hakyeon got his shit together. 

This was not what Wonshik thought he was signing up for when he answered that 'job' ad. Travel the world and make money, right. What money? Ever since he started hanging around Hakyeon all he had been doing was bitch work.

He had plopped down on the edge of the bed and was trying to kick his shoes off when the door swung open. Startled, Wonshik froze, eyes wide, as both Taekwoon and Hongbin came in. Things still weren't exactly good between himself and Taekwoon—Wonshik tried not to think anything at all around him, and he figured Taekwoon could pick up how tense he was, because for the most part the dragon usually just left him alone. Either way, as long as Taekwoon was out of his hair, Wonshik didn't mind if Hakyeon kept him around. 

Except now here Taekwoon was standing in the middle of his apartment staring Wonshik down silently, arms folded across his chest. Hongbin was a step or two behind Taekwoon and leaned out towards the side in order to peek around the other dragon's wide frame at Wonshik. 

No one said anything. Wonshik kept still for another moment or two before he finished taking his shoes off. “Do you guys need something?” he asked, looking at the pair of them from the corners of his eyes. Wonshik's question was met with silence and he pulled a face to himself; should have expected that, really. After another moment or so ticked by Wonshik simply stood up and put his hands on his hips. “I'm real tired from today guys, so why don't you go play somewhere else.”

At this, Taekwoon turned and merely nodded silently at Hongbin, and stepped back towards the door as if to leave. He paused, however, at the bookcase covered in knickknacks the previous tenant had left behind and plucked a decorative stone from a glass bowl. Taekwoon curled his fingers around it and slipped out the door without any explanation for that at all.

With Taekwoon gone, Hongbin's face lit up with a wide, toothy smile. Wonshik did always think that Hongbin had a nice smile. It made Hongbin seem much more, well, personable compared to Taekwoon. The dragon took several steps closer to Wonshik and reached out to grab him, his fingers gripped around Wonshik's upper arms. It was only when Hongbin had a very firm hold on him did Wonshik realize that the dragon was purposefully keeping him in place. 

“But I want to play with you.” Hongbin murmured in his deep voice, smile wide and eyes sparkling.

Wonshik didn't even have time to wonder what that meant before Hongbin was kissing him eagerly, pushing Wonshik back towards the bed behind him. When he felt the mattress against his legs he stopped, and Hongbin forcibly sat him down. 

“Um,” Wonshik's head was swimming. Normally it took a lot to render him speechless—well, he supposed a random dragon he hadn't known very long kissing him and wanting to 'play' was probably what most people would consider 'a lot'. “Hongbin, you know I'm human right? We can't do whatever it is you're thinking of here.” 

Hongbin seemed completely unfazed; he already was in the middle of pulling his own clothing off. “It's fine. Taekwoon says he did it with Hakyeon and nothing bad happened. I want to do it with you.”

“What, why?” 

“I like your neck.” Hongbin murmured and reached out to ghost his fingertips along Wonshik's throat. “I think it is very pretty.” 

He wasn't sure what to make of that really, but Wonshik didn't think he could accept that answer even if Hongbin was human. “Ah, I'm not sure—”

Hongbin continued as if Wonshik hadn't been just about to start protesting. “Jaehee. You say her name a lot at night... That's a girl's name right? Do you miss her?”

Gobsmacked, Wonshik couldn't even form a coherent response right away. Jaehee was... not something he really wanted to talk about with Hongbin, Hakyeon, or anyone else on the entire planet. Had he really been saying her name at night? He dreamt of her sometimes, but he didn't think it was that often. Hongbin didn't have that weird mindfuck thing Taekwoon did, did he?

Hongbin had taken most of his clothing now, left in just his boxers, and he crouched down in front of Wonshik. “If you're lonely, I can help you.” the dragon murmured, as he slowly pushed Wonshik's knees apart. 

Wonshik was always around people, but he knew that wasn't what Hongbin meant. Lonely. Was he lonely? To be honest Wonshik tried not to think about about it. When was the last time..? He could hardly remember. And Hongbin kneeling between his legs, looking up at him with big eyes, well—that was really nice...

His expression must have given his thought process away, because Hongbin reached up and pulled Wonshik's shirt up enough to get the fabric out of his way. Immediately, the dragon began kissing and nipping at Wonshik's abdomen as he slid his hands down the length of Wonshik's torso and settled on his hips. 

“You don't waste any time, huh,” Wonshik mumbled. “Kiss me once and you're already on your knees.” 

“This is more fun.” Hongbin replied between nibbles. 

Hongbin took his time exploring Wonshik's body with his mouth, which eventually set Wonshik to squirming. He didn't usually enjoy being teased like this—too frustrating. And Wonshik got the distinct impression that those nibbles weren't just for his benefit; Hongbin was deliberately _tasting_ him. He wondered when the last time a human got eaten by a dragon was, and if he was going to be the person who finally broke that statistic. 

He opened his mouth to say something but before he could even get a word out, Hongbin dropped his head and nuzzled his nose against the front of Wonshik's jeans. He was turgid, not yet fully erect, because there was only so much Hongbin's exploring did for him, but the dragon hummed a pleased sort of sound regardless. 

“Hips up,” Hongbin commanded as his fingers fiddled with the button closure and zipper of Wonshik's jeans. He made quick work of it and Wonshik complied because now he was sort of invested in this whole thing. Curiosity, mainly. What could go wrong with a quick bj, right? Had Hakyeon felt this weird with Taekwoon? But that was a thought Wonshik shoved aside quickly. He didn't want to think about Hakyeon when he had someone playing with his dick. 

His pants and boxers were pulled down just far enough to give Hongbin enough room to work with and the dragon wasted no time at all. Wonshik wasn't expecting much, but he found himself surprised at Hongbin's enthusiasm. Immediately, the dragon wrapped his fingers around Wonshik's cock and held him steady while he licked Wonshik in long, wide strokes from base to tip. As soon as Hongbin started ministering over him with earnest Wonshik was surprised by how fast he got hard. By the time Hongbin was swirling his tongue around the head of Wonshik's cock, he was actually throbbing. 

Clearly, it had been much too long since the last time he had gotten any.

Wonshik reached up and threaded the fingers of one hand in Hongbin's hair, brushing it back from his face. This caused Hongbin to look up at Wonshik as he drew Wonshik's cock into his mouth properly. Normally, Wonshik really liked it when his partner looked up at him when they had his cock in his mouth, but he was startled to see Hongbin's eyes had turned solid blue, completely covering his iris and sclera. Could he even see Wonshik?

He made no effort to hide his surprise and Hongbin simply smiled widely at him for it. Happily, Hongbin took Wonshik in until he ran out of room, and wrapped his lips tight around his cock. As he pulled back, Hongbin sucked hard, pressing his tongue firmly along the sensitive nerve on the underside of Wonshik's length as he did so. Wonshik tightened his fingers in Hongbin's hair and tugged on it encouragingly; successfully distracted away from all thoughts of Hongbin's weird eyes. 

After several passes, Wonshik's cock was coated in Hongbin's saliva, and he found himself pressing his hips upwards into Hongbin's mouth, seeking out more of his warmth. Hongbin was warmer than anyone Wonshik had ever been with and it felt amazing. He could have very easily finished this way, but apparently Hongbin had different ideas. 

When Wonshik was really settling into a good rhythm, the dragon very suddenly pulled back and stood. He placed his hands on Wonshik's shoulders to brace himself and pulled a leg up to balance his foot on Wonshik's knee. “I need help getting these off.” Hongbin indicated the small silver band around his ankle. Wonshik unclasped the first before Hongbin presented him with the second and he set them aside for the dragon. “Thank you.” Hongbin's smile was wicked and it was only then that Wonshik had realized what he had done. 

He took off Hongbin's cuffs. 

The dragon gave him no time to react at all. He pushed Wonshik back onto the bed entirely and pinned him down. There was a sickening sound of bones crunching, shifting, moving—Wonshik was worried that Hongbin had hurt him somehow and the adrenaline was keeping the pain away—but he quickly figured out he was wrong. Hongbin was changing back.

The dragon rolled his shoulders a bit as his body changed, lengthened. He was much taller than Wonshik now, he could tell, and bigger all around; not that Hongbin needed any additional strength to pin Wonshik helplessly to the bed in the first place. His face elongated slightly to accommodate all the new fangs crowding in Hongbin's mouth, and from his forehead sprouted two horns. The skin split at the bases, dripping a bluish-green blood down his temple. Wonshik could see other horn buds in Hongbin's hair, framing his face. There were patches of bronze metallic scales mottled with blue and green here and there on Hongbin's skin. Somewhere along the way, Hongbin's boxers had disappeared.

But as suddenly as he started to shift, Hongbin stopped. 

“There,” he growled, his voice even deeper now. “That should be enough.” 

“Enough what!” Wonshik demanded after he finally remembered how words worked again. 

“Enough.” Hongbin replied and leaned in to nuzzle his nose against the side of Wonshik's neck. He inhaled deeply and opened his mouth to nibble at Wonshik once more. 

Wonshik felt the dragon's fangs grazing along his skin and it sent a thrilling shiver up his spine; an exciting feeling. Wonshik didn't want to explore what it meant just then, but he enjoyed it probably more than he thought he should have. 

Hongbin had not been kidding when he said he liked Wonshik's neck. Those nibbles turned into suckles—Wonshik could feel a spot on his pulse point that was definitely going to bruise later—and Hongbin even spent some time lavishing attention on the hollow of Wonshik's throat with his tongue. As he worked back to the side of Wonshik's neck, Hongbin's hips pressed against Wonshik's own, and he rocked their bodies together with a low groan. Wonshik found Hongbin's rhythm and arched his hips to grind back up against the dragon. As they moved against one another Wonshik felt a pleasant heat pooling in his belly, and once he _really_ began to get back into it, Hongbin nosed in on the junction where Wonshik's neck met his shoulder and the dragon bit him hard enough to draw blood. 

“Sorry,” Hongbin mumbled. He sounded intoxicated. “You just smell so good...” And he licked at the small puncture wounds. 

“Just stop fucking toying with me.” Wonshik hissed and squeezed Hongbin's arms to draw his attention back to reality. 

–

Hakyeon returned home with a large pizza box in hand, and tilted his head. The room was curiously silent. “Did Hongbin go back to Wonshik's?” he asked Taekwoon who was sitting in the middle of the floor, with several rocks arranged before him. In the middle was the large stone Hakyeon recognized as the rock Taekwoon had picked up from the desert, though all the other ones were unfamiliar to him. Where had Taekwoon gotten those?

Unsurprisingly, Taekwoon didn't answer at all, though he did turn his head a fraction to look at the pizza box out of the corners of his eyes. 

“Well, I'm going to go over there and ask if they want pizza.” Hakyeon continued as if Taekwoon wasn't just straight up ignoring him again and set the pizza down on the first available flat surface he could find. “Wonshik should be home by now.”

“Wonshik is busy.” Taekwoon murmured as Hakyeon stepped back over to the door.

“Doing what? No one is too busy to eat.” Hakyeon replied and scooted out into the hall. He scurried to Wonshik's door and tried the knob, happy to find it wasn't locked—Wonshik didn't often lock it unless he wasn't home or asleep, and flung the door open. 

On the bed immediately across the room from the door was both Wonshik and Hongbin. Wonshik was laying back with Hongbin on top of him who was huge, suddenly, and covered in scale patches. He was very, very clearly riding Wonshik and riding him hard; Hongbin's hips were gyrating in a way that would have made any exotic dancer jealous. With each movement Hongbin moaned and threw his head back and Hakyeon got a good look at the horns coming out of Hongbin's forehead and curving back slightly. And were those two lumps on his back the sprouts for Hongbin's wings?

Hakyeon gasped and quickly slammed the door shut, but he was rooted in place and his face flushed. He knew he shouldn't be, but the sight he had just saw aroused him—not because voyeurism itself was anything Hakyeon was interested in, but he was very suddenly picturing himself on his back with Taekwoon above him, all horns and fangs. 

He gathered his wits as quick as he could, and hurried back to his own apartment. The door slammed behind him, which appeared to startle Taekwoon, who glanced up at him. 

“Did you know what they were doing over there?” He demanded, trying to sound at least a little cross with Taekwoon, though he wasn't sure his flushed face was helping that facade. 

“Yes.”

“Even Hongbin all big and....” Hakyeon, at a loss for words, just motioned in front of his forehead with his hands to indicate the horns he had seen. 

“Yes.”

Hakyeon took a deep, steadying breath. “You could have told me properly before I went over there and opened the door you know!” 

“I said Wonshik was busy.” 

“'Busy' is not the word I would have used to describe that.” Hakyeon took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. He bit his bottom lip and gave Taekwoon a sideways look. Whatever it was Hongbin was doing over there... would Taekwoon do it with him?


	14. In Too Deep

“So are you ever going to talk to me about what I saw the other day or are you just going to keep ignoring me whenever I ask?”

“Hakyeon, I swear to God—”

“Because I was thinking of ordering t-shirts, you know, or team sweatshirts. I'm going to need your size.”

“How do I immediately will myself to death?”

“Don't say stupid things.” Hakyeon chided and flicked some sand at Wonshik's nice sneakers. 

They were sitting together on the beach, having come down to the shore from the far side of the city to give the dragons some space to stretch out and play. Hakyeon thought it was probably a good idea to let the dragons out of the house every once and again. But the weather had turned much too cold for either one of them to really enjoy the beach as it was meant to be; except Hongbin was semi-aquatic, so here they were. Hakyeon and Wonshik were bundled up in their jackets and huddled close to try and escape the wind. 

Wonshik just sighed in response and twirled Hongbin's cuffs around one of his fingers. “I really don't want to talk about it, okay?” 

“You're going to have to talk about it some point.” Hakyeon murmured as he tucked his legs up against his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Instead of trying to engage Wonshik further, Hakyeon stared out at the dragons playing. Well, Hongbin was playing—he had shifted back into his normal self the second his cuffs had been taken off and darted into the water immediately—but Taekwoon was just wrapped in a sweater and sulking by the edge of the water. Hakyeon had offered to take Taekwoon's cuffs off as well, but the dragon had pulled out of Hakyeon's grasp as if he had been burned, and refused. 

On the whole, Taekwoon was still a very big mystery to Hakyeon. Sure, he had a name now and it was more than Hakyeon started with but what did the name matter when he didn't know anything else? Hakyeon had no idea where Taekwoon came from, any of his history, or even an inkling of why the dragon did the things he did. What went through his head on a daily basis? What was up with those rocks? Why didn't he want Hakyeon to take off his cuffs? And more importantly, what did he think of Hakyeon? 

“Wonshik,” Hakyeon began speaking again after a long silence had stretched between the two of them. “About Taekwoon...”

“What about him?”

“I don't know.” he whispered. “I don't know anything. Everyday he just confuses me more.”

Wonshik shifted a little, just enough to turn and look at Hakyeon next to him. “And yet you're an open book to him because of his mind games deal.” 

“Er, yes, I suppose so...” 

“Why don't we see if we can get better cuffs?” Wonshik suggested, and wiggled Hongbin's pair at Hakyeon for emphasis. “The pair you got on him are old, and maybe they don't have enough enchantments, or the spells have gone weak. If we get knew ones, it might hold back all of his magic, not just most of it.” 

At this, Hakyeon pulled a face. “I'm not sure I'm comfortable trying to purposefully repress him further...” And it was likely Taekwoon would figure out what they were up to before they were able to do it, given the nature of the issue at hand. “I want him to open up to me more, not give him more reasons to hide from me.” 

Wonshik just gave Hakyeon a flat sort of look. “Are you always this easy?”

“Excuse me?” Hakyeon's eyebrows shot upwards. 

“Are you always this easy?” Wonshik repeated in the same tone. “I've never even seen you flirt with anyone else except whenever we go to the bar and you want someone to pay for your snacks. But you let him fuck you once and you're making eyes at him? Do you go mooning over anyone you sleep with?”

Hakyeon frowned deeply, and gave Wonshik a bit of a shove (not that it did much). “I am not _mooning_. Taekwoon is just... good looking.” 

“He's not even human.” 

“Yeah okay, because you have the right to say that to me?” Hakyeon reached over and neck chopped his friend. “I just think he's nice looking, okay? And I want to know more about him.” 

“Uh huh.” Wonshik replied, disbelievingly, and rubbed at the side of his neck where Hakyeon had hit him. “If you don't want to get new cuffs though do you think we should at least have the ones he's wearing looked at to make sure their spell bindings are still okay? Routine maintenance, you know.”

Hakyeon exhaled slowly while he considered this. “Yeah, I guess that would be okay. We don't exactly have the cash to get them looked at right now though.” 

“Let's go pay Jaehwan a visit. It's not like he'll be doing anything, right?” Wonshik suggested with a shrug. 

“Alright,” Hakyeon sighed. “Let's pack it up here soon and head to his place.” 

A silence fell between the two of them once more. Hakyeon watched the dragons; Taekwoon still wasn't doing much (if anything, he looked sulkier than earlier) but Hongbin seemed to be having a great time out in the waves. A ways out into the water, beyond where Hongbin was swimming, a group of bronze dragons surfaced, likely having swum from around the other side of the rock jetty where Hakyeon was sure their caves were located. Hongbin seemed to catch sight of them at the same time as Hakyeon had, lifting himself out of the water a bit to stretch and flap his wings. He called out to them, a high yelp of a sound, but the dragons either didn't hear him or were ignoring Hongbin entirely. They turned away and disappeared back below the surface of the choppy water. 

–

“Jaehwan, you home?” Wonshik called as he knocked on the door to the giant house the magician had been renting on the outskirts of the city. 

“Even if he is, I doubt he'd hear us...” Hakyeon shielded his eyes from the sun and glanced up at the house. Despite this, Wonshik leaned over to hit the doorbell another two or three times. 

Unexpectedly, the front door swung open and Jaehwan's scowling face poked out. “I heard you the first time! I'm very busy you know, I don't have time to—oh, it's you guys.” The scowl dropped and Jaehwan opened the door all the way. “Why didn't you say so?”

Wonshik and Hakyeon merely exchanged glances before Hakyeon spoke up. “If this is a bad time we can come back...” 

“No, no, I'm free. Come in.” Jaehwan replied lightly, and motioned everyone into the foyer. “This one is new.” he observed, and pointed at Hongbin. 

“Er, yes, long story about him.” Hakyeon said as Jaehwan locked up behind them. “We're actually here because we were hoping you could do us a favor.”

“Which is?” Jaehwan motioned for everyone to follow as he glided along into the house's front living room. 

“I wanted to ask if you'd be able to take a look at the magic binding cuffs I have on Ta—Leo.” Hakyeon caught himself and tried to cover his stumble with a cough. “I got them secondhand a long while back, so... Just making sure they're working as they should be...” 

At this, Taekwoon turned to Hakyeon and gave him a look, but he held his head high and tried to ignore the holes Taekwoon's eyes were boring into his skin. He wasn't doing anything wrong, even if the dragon didn't like it, Hakyeon told himself. No reason to get all bothered by Taekwoon staring. 

“Is that all?” Jaehwan asked, as if the task couldn't have been more boring. He turned to Taekwoon. “Hand please.” 

Obediently, Taekwoon lifted one of his hands and presented his cuffed wrist to Jaehwan without taking his eyes off of Hakyeon. Jaehwan turned the dragon's hand this way and that, inspecting the cuff physically before he quickly waved a hand over it. The cuff emitted a faint red glow, and the light faded away almost as quickly as it appeared. 

“Looks fine to me,” Jaehwan concluded and looked back to Hakyeon. “Anything else?” 

“Not really—” Wonshik started, but then could not continue because he cracked up laughing. “What the fuck happened to your chicken, dude?” 

Illhoon had appeared in the doorway to the hall at some point during their conversation, looking as indignant as a chicken could possibly be. Except now, Illhoon was blue. 

“I told you to say in your room!” Jaehwan turned around, arms thrown wide as he addressed the chicken. 

“The chicken has a room?” Wonshik was still laughing. 

Taekwoon slipped around Jaehwan and went to pick Illhoon up, who squawked unhappily in Jaehwan's direction. The squawk turned into a hiccup, and Illhoon ended up spitting a few sparks onto the carpet. 

“None of that in here, you take the fire breathing outside!” Jaehwan demanded as he herded Taekwoon and Illhoon out of the room. Hongbin looked mildly perplexed, but after a quick glance to Hakyeon and Wonshik, he simply wandered off after Taekwoon and Jaehwan, who could be heard ranting about the housing deposit the entire way to the back door. 

“Why is Illhoon blue now?” Hakyeon asked when Jaehwan finally returned. 

“I'm still working on changing him back.” Jaehwan grumbled, his ears red. “I tried something new and... this was the result.” With a dramatic sigh, he flopped back onto the fainting couch behind him, a hand pressed to his forehead. “It looks like I really am going to have to wait for an appointment with one of the transfiguration specialists...”

Wonshik just sort of laughed again at Jaehwan's theatrics, but Hakyeon suddenly remembered something. “Wonshik, the note. The note Sanghyuk got! I still have it!” he whipped around back to Jaehwan. “If I give you a letter our friend received would you be able to tell us where it's from?” 

“We decided it was a bad joke, Hakyeon...” 

But Hakyeon was already rummaging in his bag. “Here, here it is.” he said triumphantly when he found it and pulled it out. 

Jaehwan took the crinkled sheet of notebook paper and curled his lip at it. “There's not really a whole lot to go on here.”

“Is there anything you can do?”

“I guess I could put a Trace on it.” Jaehwan mused, the note still pinched between two fingers. 

“A Trace?” 

“If you cast a Trace on something, it'll glow brighter and brighter as it gets closer to the person who created it, or owns it.” the magician explained. “It's basically a cosmic game of Hot or Cold. The spell is usually reserved for items, but we could try it?” 

Wonshik shrugged and motioned for Jaehwan to go ahead. “It couldn't hurt.” 

Jaehwan murmured several words in a language neither Wonshik or Hakyeon understood, and waved his free hand over the paper, which promptly burst into flames. Jaehwan yelped and dropped it quickly, while Wonshik jumped forward and stamped the fire out before it could consume the entire note. 

“Be careful!” Hakyeon shouted, and moved to scoop the letter back up when the flames were out. “This is our only evidence!” The paper was worse for wear, but the important part still seemed to be intact. Hakyeon tucked it away safely back in his bag once more. 

“Are you even a real magician?” Wonshik asked, sardonically. 

“Ah, well,” Jaehwan at least looked sheepish with himself. “Yes and no. I never did pass the qualification exam so I'm not _licensed_ but I did finish school, so I've got that going for me...” 

“He's not a real magician.” Wonshik concluded to Hakyeon. 

“I am, I am! The exam is just really hard, okay?” Jaehwan turned his nose up at Wonshik and sniffed. “I'd like to see you try it.” 

“What happened?” Hakyeon asked, his head tilted. 

Jaehwan puffed his cheeks out indignantly. “For the exam you have to invent an entirely new spell or magical item. It can't be something that's been done before. Do you know how difficult it is to come up with something? Magic has been around for hundreds, thousands of years; everything's already been _done_.”

Wonshik motioned for Jaehwan to hurry up. “Get to the point.”

“Well, I had the _best_ idea.” Jaehwan began gesticulating a lot with his hands as he spoke, clearly he was excited. “I actually cultivated and grew a magical fruit that, after being eaten, would aerate the blood for a couple hours. You would only have to exhale every now and then to release built up carbon dioxide in your lungs.”

“That... actually sounds like a great idea. What happened?” Hakyeon quirked an eyebrow.

Jaehwan made another face. “I forgot, uh, biology. Apparently, there's only so far you can exhale before your muscles are so relaxed you can't exhale any further. You have to inhale again. One of the panel judges administering the test ate my fruit, couldn't exhale anymore, but his body was so oxygenated it wouldn't let him inhale again. I think that's what the doctor said... Anyway, he was fine after being hospitalized for a while but... I didn't pass the test.” 

“Yeah so that sucks, but you also turned your dragon into a chicken, and set our letter on fire so how can we be sure you checked Leo's cuffs properly?” Wonshik asked, arms folded. 

“Please, I make mistakes sometimes but not on anything as easy as that.” Jaehwan huffed at Wonshik. 

“I guess we could always get a second opinion to make sure...” Hakyeon murmured, just thinking out loud to himself. 

“We don't have the money.” Wonshik reminded him, arms folded again. 

“Here,” Jaehwan reached forward and grabbed a pen and a stack of post-it notes from the coffee table in front of him. He scribbled down some a name and address on it before tearing the top piece from the stack and handing the small paper to Hakyeon. “Go talk to this guy.” 

“Who is it?” Hakyeon asked, reading the information. It wasn't a name or a location he recognized. 

“It's.... it's the Dragon Guy.” Jaehwan waved his hands a little bit. “He knows everything. He's not a magician but he'll be able to check the cuffs for you and probably address any other issues you've had. I've been bringing Illhoon to see him.” 

Hakyeon turned to Wonshik and gave a little half shrug. “Worth a shot.” 

–

The address Jaehwan had given them was back towards Hakyeon and Wonshik's end of the city, though not quite in the rough industrial district. The “street” the location they were supposed to be heading to was nothing more than the tiniest alleyway Hakyeon had ever seen. It was only wide enough for them to walk through it single file; two at a time would have been a tight fit.

“You go first.” he pushed Wonshik towards the alley. 

“Why me?” Wonshik complained, and scooted back around behind Hakyeon so he could shove him towards the alley instead. “You go, this is your adventure.” 

“You're scarier looking than I am, and I don't want to be mugged!” 

“There's no one down there and no room to hide. We're fine.” Wonshik nudged Hakyeon forward again. 

“Fine,” Hakyeon took a deep breath to steel himself and marched off down the alley. Part way down there was a door, with the street number of the address they were looking for mounted above it, just like Jaehwan mentioned it would be. 

“Guess this is it,” Wonshik said from somewhere behind Hakyeon. 

Hakyeon reached up to knock on the metal door but before his knuckles even made contact, the door swung open into the building. Hakyeon glanced back over his shoulder at Wonshik, heading up the rear, who motioned for him to continue on. The interior of the building was not well lit, and Hakyeon did hesitate for a moment before he was able to push himself forward. It was still too narrow on the inside and when the door swung shut behind them, their surrounding area was plunged into darkness. Suddenly, Hakyeon felt large hands on his body, and arms wrapped around his chest from behind. A voice whispered in his ear.

“It's okay. Keep going forward. There is a faint light in the distance. As we get closer you will see it too.” 

Taekwoon, it was only Taekwoon. 

Hakyeon relaxed a bit, exhaling a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. With Taekwoon still hanging onto him, Hakyeon shuffled forward again and found that the dragon was right. As they moved down the dark, narrow hallway, it became easier for Hakyeon to see the faint light Taekwoon mentioned. After a bit of walking, they reached the end of the hall and the source of that light.

To their left was merely a door, but the right opened up into a wide room crammed full of items. It reminded Hakyeon quite a bit of the Mistress' magic shop, with how everything was organized. The light was from candles that littered every available surface that wasn't already occupied by something else. 

Hakyeon stepped into the room just to get out of the hall, and Taekwoon released him in favor of going to stand a short distance away. Hongbin and Wonshik followed, and Hakyeon could tell Wonshik was happy to be out of that hallway as he was, even if his friend had his tough guy facade up. 

“Hello?” Hakyeon called out and wondered just what sort of fire hazard they had willingly wandered into. When there was no answer, he called out again. “Is anyone here?”

“Yes, yes!” A voice replied from somewhere behind a distant stack of items. “Stay right there!” Hakyeon shuffled uncomfortably, and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets as they waited. Eventually, a cloaked and hooded figure emerged from further back in the room and held it's arms wide. “Hello, welcome!” 

The hood obscured the wearer's face entirely, and the lighting in the room wasn't helping things; Hakyeon had no idea who he was looking at. And no idea of where he should even look. For all he knew he might have been staring at this guy's nose. “Yes, hi... We're looking for, um...” He made to pull out the post-it note Jaehwan had given him again to double check the name. 

“No need, no need. I know why you're here.” 

“Did you know we were coming?” Wonshik asked, arms folded. 

The figure laughed, a deep and hearty sound. “No, of course not. But there is only one reason why you would come here.” 

Hakyeon and Wonshik exchanged glances. The dragons seemed unperturbed; Taekwoon was inspecting items on the shelf nearest to him and Hongbin appeared to have been distracted by a set of candles who's flames were burning all different colors. 

When no one else said anything the cloaked man spoke again. “Well, come in, have a seat wherever you'll be comfortable.” A arm was thrown out to indicate the various chairs around the room. 

Hakyeon moved towards the nearest squishy looking arm chair and lifted a pile of papers from the seat cushion out of the way before he had a seat. Wonshik perched himself a short distance away on a bar stool. The cloaked figure took a seat behind a table Hakyeon had not noticed until his attention was drawn to it. 

“I hope you'll forgive me for leaving my robe on,” the figure began once they were all settled. “I do this in my spare time, as a hobby, if you will. I can't risk letting it become linked to my professional life. I'm sure you understand.” 

“Sure,” Hakyeon replied automatically, because what else was there for him to say to that? 

“Now tell me, what questions do you have that need answering?”

“Ah, well, we were hoping you could maybe tell us if my dragon's spellbinding cuffs are still working as they should be?” Hakyeon indicated Taekwoon behind him, who was still lifting items off the shelves and turning them over in his hands to inspect each one. 

The figure leaned in his seat in order to glance around Hakyeon. He looked at Taekwoon for barely even a second before he straightened himself, readjusting his robe a bit. “The cuffs are functioning well.” he said. “But the magical aura surrounding this dragon isn't entirely repressed. He's very old, isn't he?” 

Hakyeon bit his bottom lip. “I don't actually know how old he is...” 

The figure didn't sound like he had actually been expecting an answer. “He also has a gift, does he not?” 

“You mean his mind reading?” Hakyeon replied, and leaned in closer towards the table. “He can also influence your thoughts. It seems to go both ways.”

“Yes, I see.” There was a pause while the figure turned his head towards Taekwoon once more, apparently looking the dragon over again. When the figure's attention was turned back to Hakyeon, his voice took on a much more serious air than the light tone he had been using previously. “Dragons with out of the ordinary magical gifts are very rare. You should do your best to keep an eye on him.” 

Hakyeon frowned at this. Taekwoon had mentioned himself that only very few dragons had the same ability. But this guy had asked if Taekwoon had “a gift” not “the gift” or a variant thereof. Were there other abilities some dragons had that were equally as rare?

“And you, what is your question?” The hooded figure had turned his attention to Wonshik. 

Wonshik looked surprised, and held his hands up innocently. “Me? I don't have anything to ask.” 

At this, the figure stood up and marched a short distance away. He dug in a pile of old, dusty looking books for a moment and murmured a 'ah ha!' when the item he was looking for had been found. Robes sweeping at his feet, he came back around his table and handed a small tome to Wonshik. “Read this. It will ease your mind.” 

Wonshik opened his mouth to protest, but once he had a look at the book's title, he closed it and held the book to his chest instead. “Thanks,” he mumbled. 

“Now back to you.” the figure turned towards Hakyeon once more. “You do not yet seem settled.” 

“Actually, I did have something I was still worried about.” And for the second time that day, Hakyeon dug out Sanghyuk's note from his bag. “We think it's a prank but...” It wouldn't hurt to let this guy take a look at it, Hakyeon figured, since he seemed to know what he was doing. 

The figure reached out to take the charred paper and read it quickly. “Who does this reference?”

“We think it's him.” Wonshik motioned at Hongbin. “He belongs to a friend of ours; the one who received that letter. We've had him for safekeeping ever since.” 

“A good move.” the figure nodded, approving, and then he tossed the note onto a nearby candle, where it began to burn and crumple. 

“Um,” Hakyeon was too surprised to react right away, but he found his voice after a moment. “Excuse me, what are you doing?!” 

The hooded figure circled back around to the far side of his table once more, and had a seat. “There have been whispers lately,” he began as he got settled. “Merely whispers, however, they're loud enough that I've been able to hear them.

“A not very nice group of people under the employ of a very rich dragon collector have come to this city, or so the whispers say. They're looking for a specific dragon and have been promised a lot of novas for the delivery of said dragon to their employer. Your letter was probably a bad joke of some kind, however, it would be best if you didn't walk around with something that could imply a possible link to something rare.” 

“Hongbin's just a regular bronze dragon though.” Wonshik motioned at the dragon, who perked when he heard his name. 

“Never assume anyone or any dragon is 'just' anything, Mr. Kim.” the figure replied, his fingers steepled in front of himself, his smile apparent in his voice. 

“How did you—?”

“A guess.” the robed man laughed and tugged his hood further forward. “But I think it's best if you all were on your way.” he lifted a hand to indicate the dark hallway they had come from. 

Hakyeon murmured a thank you to the hooded figure, stood, and went to tug on Taekwoon's elbow in order to direct him back towards the hallway. His mind was spinning, a jumble of questions and information he couldn't make sense of right away. He felt like he really should be asking this guy for more info, but the questions wouldn't come. Wonshik headed into the hallway first this time, followed up by Hongbin and then Taekwoon. Hakyeon had just been about to turn the corner after them when the man behind the table spoke again. 

“One more bit of advice, if I may?” his voice was light and airy again, the smile clearly still in place somewhere under the hood. “It would perhaps be best if you left this city. Some time before the end of the month would be good. The southern coast is lovely this time of year.”


	15. Train to Nowhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I know it's been about a thousand years since I've updated and for that I apologize. ㅜㅜ I was having health troubles most of 2017 and life got the better of me, so writing took a big back seat to everything I had going on. But we're back! And hopefully settling into posting more frequently. :) 
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me this long! ♥♥ If you enjoy this fic, please consider giving this chapter [a reblog on tumblr!](http://importantgalaxydefendor.tumblr.com/post/172077077237/rebels-and-serpents-train-to-nowhere-15)

Hakyeon lay on his back, staring straight up at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep. The advice given to him by the strange hooded figure they had visited the day before was still echoing in his head. _It would perhaps be best if you left this city._

He looked towards his companions to see if any of them heard what was said, but they already disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. When Hakyeon glanced back into the room to question just what he meant, the mysterious figure was no longer seated behind his desk. In fact, he seemed to have vanished completely in the one second Hakyeon wasn't paying attention.

Leave the city? It hadn't even been that long since they arrived and Hakyeon and Wonshik had been intent on staying here for a while. The opportunities were better; that's why they had trekked all the way across the country in the first place. Not to mention Hakyeon just received his permanent clearance and access to the training facility he had petitioned to join, despite his accident on their grounds. They couldn't pack up and _leave._ Could they?

The hooded figure and his light, airy voice had even given Hakyeon a time frame. Leave before the end of the month. If Hakyeon decided they needed to go, they would only have ten days to sort everything out. That wasn't a terribly long amount of time to figure out transport, decide where to go, what to bring... It would be a nightmare. And that was if he could even convince Wonshik to leave in the first place. 

Hakyeon was startled from his thoughts by Taekwoon climbing into bed next to him, the dragon's weight making the cheap mattress springs creak in protest as he got settled. 

“You're radiating agitation,” he mumbled and gathered Hakyeon into his arms. “Can't sleep.” 

“Sorry.”

Taekwoon didn't say anything else, and if Hakyeon had been broadcasting his thoughts for Taekwoon to hear, even unintentionally, he didn't mention it. Hakyeon was grateful for that at least—he didn't want to think about dealing with Taekwoon's intrusive ability to read minds at the moment. It was quiet for a time, until Hakyeon decided to finally speak again. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“Mm.”

“Will you at least tell me how old you are?” Hakyeon didn't really expect an answer this time—or any other time—that he asked Taekwoon about himself. Seeing as they both were awake, Hakyeon figured he might as well take advantage of the distraction while he could.

But this time something was different. Taekwoon shifted back in order to glance down at Hakyeon and there was a look on the dragon's face that Hakyeon wasn't sure how to interpret. He opted not to say anything, lest he interrupt some train of thought. 

When Taekwoon finally did reply, his voice was very soft—more so than usual. “Does it matter?” 

Hakyeon was a little taken aback by this. “I, um, I guess not? I just want to know more about you, is all... I barely understand anything about you as it is.” 

Again, Taekwoon gave Hakyeon a look he couldn't read. “Later.” 

“Later?”

“We'll talk about it later. You should sleep now instead.” 

Hakyeon shook his head. Of course, Taekwoon deflected again. For a second there he really thought that the dragon might throw him a bone, but apparently he was still trying to run Hakeyon in circles. Whatever, he wouldn't let Taekwoon get under his skin like this. There was other stuff to worry about. 

He settled back into his pillow and closed his eyes. It took a while for his mind to stop spinning, the robed figure's words echoing in his head, but he could feel himself finally drifting off to sleep when suddenly Taekwoon's soft voice roused him. “Why not just go ask him again?”

“What?” Hakyeon blinked himself awake.

“Tomorrow. Let's go back to the alley tomorrow and ask him what he meant. Since you're worried about it.” 

It took him a second to understand, but Hakyeon realized quickly he must have been projecting his worries too much for the dragon to ignore. But Taekwoon actually made a lot of sense. Why hadn't Hakyeon thought of doing that himself? And if he brought Wonshik with them then the whole problem of trying to convince him would be mitigated. Two birds, one stone, and all that. 

“You're so smart.” Hakyeon leaned over to kiss Taekwoon's nose.

–

“And you're taking us back there because you want the guy to clarify something he said while all of the rest of us were conveniently out of earshot? That we need to leave the city right now immediately, for no readily apparent reason?” Wonshik grumped as he followed Hakyeon and Taekwoon down the sidewalk, Hongbin trailing a short distance behind them. 

“If you don't believe me, you can ask him yourself when we get there.” Hakyeon shot back over his shoulder in a huff. Of course he knew Wonshik was going to react this way, but it was still annoying. “I don't see why you wouldn't believe me though, I'm only your _best friend_ , I would assume you were here to support me in these things.” 

Wonshik scoffed. “Did you forget I'm the only one who has a job right now? I'm supporting you in more ways than one.”

Hakyeon decided it was time to double check the address again and ignored Wonshik's little quip. They were fairly close; the alley was just down another side street only a block away. It was a quick walk but as soon as Hakyeon rounded the corner he stopped in his tracks. 

The narrow alley was gone. 

Instead, the brick of the two buildings previously flanking the alley appeared to be completely unbroken, turning the buildings into a singular unit. The door that originally was in the alley—with the building number above it—was a short distance away on the road facing side of the building. There were even windows up above. There was no way this had been constructed since the previous day. In fact, there was no indication that there had ever been an alley here at all. 

“Huh,” Wonshik crossed his arms and stared at the wall where the alley should have been, while Hakyeon stomped back to the corner to make sure they were at the right address. 

“What the hell is going on?!” He demanded of no one in particular, once he verified they were indeed in the correct area. 

“Alley's gone.” Taekwoon supplied helpfully.

Hakyeon gave Taekwoon an unpleasant look before he threw his arms up in exasperation. “Yes, _thank you_ , but now what are we supposed to do?”

“Listen, I don't know about whatever this guy said to you yesterday,” Wonshik said, one arm still crossed over his chest as he stroked his chin with the opposite hand. “But whatever is going on here is fucked up.” 

Hakyeon double checked the number on the slip of paper again, and marched over to the door. He hesitated for a fraction of a second before turning the knob. The door pushed open easy enough, and Hakyeon found himself in the lobby of an apartment building that had been converted to offices. The directory placard posted on the wall across from the mailboxes displayed the various business names—there was a dentist, several lawyers, a skin care clinic... nothing that indicated the mysterious robe wearing man from yesterday was located at this address. Hakyeon had been half hoping the signage would have said something like “Weird Dragon Guy – Room 402”. 

“Okay, this is a bust,” he declared as he headed back out onto the street to rejoin Wonshik and the dragons. “There's nothing useful in there.” 

“Let's say I'm sufficiently weirded out, believe you, and want to leave the city,” Wonshik thumbed over his shoulder at Hongbin. “What are we going to do about him?”

Damn it, Hakyeon had forgotten all about Hongbin not exactly being theirs to do what they wanted with. In fact, with the stress of the last couple days Hakyeon had forgotten about Sanghyuk entirely too. “Let me... figure that out,” he murmured, rubbing his face a bit. “I'll go talk to Sanghyuk. You go to work and tomorrow we'll figure out how exactly we're going to get out of here.” 

–

Hakyeon sat in the cafeteria of Sanghyuk's training center, flipping his visitor's badge through his fingers; a nervous, fidgety habit. He still wasn't sure what exactly he was going to say to Sanghyuk. A stranger in a robe whose face we never saw told us to leave the city, can we take your dragon with us? Yeah, that would go over well. But if there was one thing Hakyeon was good at it was thinking on his feet. He could totally ad-lib his way through this, right? 

Sanghyuk entered the cafeteria in his training uniform, obviously having come straight from a class of some kind. His eyes swept the room, his expression lit up when he spotted Hakyeon, and he hurried over. “They told me I had a visitor, but they didn't say who it was!” The young man chirped as he took a seat across from Hakyeon. 

“It's just me,” Hakyeon laughed and managed to pull up a convincing bright smile. “How's training?” 

“Great!” Sanghyuk was quick to launch into an overview about how the green vine dragon was performing—he had named her after some sort of vegetable, which Hakyeon thought was cute—and filled Hakyeon in on some group in-jokes and a small anecdote or two. “But enough about that. What have you guys been up to? Is Hongbin doing well?”

“Oh, yes. Hongbin's just fine,” he smiled gently and waved a hand. “As for me, I got a permanent clearance for facility use at one of the other training centers recently.” 

“That's really exciting!” 

Sanghyuk was looking at Hakyeon so earnestly that he felt a momentary twinge of guilt. He considered Sanghyuk a friend—could he outright lie to a friend? 

Yes. 

Yes, he could. 

Hakyeon nodded. “It is..! So to celebrate Wonshik and I were thinking of heading out on a bit of a trip. You know, before I get way too busy and we don't have the time anymore. I thought it'd be good to get the dragons out of the city for a little while too. We were wondering if we could take Hongbin with us?”

Sanghyuk blinked a bit, surprised, but he seemed to believe what he was told. “Oh, well, I don't see why not. Do you know where you're going yet?”

“North, just a couple hours outside of the city by car.” Hakyeon continued to lie; the words rolled smoothly off of his tongue. He felt bad he was unable to tell Sanghyuk where they were really going, even if Hakyeon couldn't tell him why exactly they were leaving. But he didn't want to risk Sanghyuk getting caught up in anything just in case someone came asking after them once they left. “There's supposed to be a lot of green and nice beaches. Hongbin will like it.”

“That sounds great! I'm sure you guys will have tons of fun.” 

Fun.

Hakyeon smiled at Sanghyuk again, though this time it didn't quite reach his eyes. 

–

The hardest part about packing for a trip no one was supposed to know they were taking was deciding what to bring. Figuring out transportation and a rough destination had been easy enough, but Hakyeon and Wonshik struggled to pack enough to have all their incidentals without making it too obvious they were essentially running off. This process had delayed them an extra day or two, which added to Hakyeon's general agitation. 

But finally, they were set and ready to leave. The morning of departure found Hakyeon and Wonshik at the train station, bags and dragons in tow. It had been Wonshik's idea for the four of them to catch a train—an idea that Hakyeon was very impressed with. This way it would be harder for anyone to figure out where exactly they were headed in case they were being watched (something Hakyeon had been getting increasingly paranoid about), especially if they paid for their tickets in cash. 

It was early enough that the train station was mostly deserted. Rush hour would come later. For now Hakyeon and Wonshik sat waiting on benches by the platform for their train to arrive. Taekwoon was a short distance away, pacing around doing...whatever it was Taekwoon did. Hakyeon still didn't have any idea what his dragon's motivations were. Hongbin was sitting on the bench with them and kept poking at Wonshik's neck. 

“Stop it,” Wonshik mumbled in his sleepy voice for the fourth time as he brushed Hongbin's fingers away. “You need to behave when we're on the train okay? You can't be touching me.” Hongbin pretended not to hear him. 

Hakyeon had all of their tickets for safe keeping. For the umpteenth time he pulled them out to go over the information on them again; he needed to ensure they were all correct. It was better than bouncing his legs or walking the length of the platform continuously.  
Departure, arrival, destination—everything matched. Of course, when he purchased the tickets he had neglected to mention that two of the passengers were dragons, but he didn't expect any problems. Hakyeon had sunglasses on hand for the dragons to hide their eyes, and he had opted to pay a little extra to get a private carriage booth for the duration of their journey. The contact with humans was to be minimal, if all went according to plan. 

The train pulled into the station and slowed to a stop by the platform. Hakyeon presented all of their tickets to the conductor who stamped them before they were allowed on the train with their assorted bags. Their booth was located easily enough, and Hakyeon herded the dragons into seats while Wonshik stowed their belongings in overhead racks. 

“We have a long ride,” Hakyeon stated once the bags were all secured, and plopped down in the seat across from Taekwoon, next to the window. “So get comfortable. We're going to be in here for a couple days.”

As the train pulled away from the station, Hakyeon felt as if a weight were slowly lifting from his shoulders. They were on their way out of the city. Surely they weren't out of the woods yet, but he felt better for just being on their way.

–

The first day was uneventful. They ate at the dining car when hungry, and stepped off the train when it stopped for more than a few minutes at larger stations to stretch their legs. Wonshik periodically took Hongbin out to wander the cars because he didn't want to let the bronze dragon get antsy all cooped up in their carriage. 

In the early afternoon of the second day, Hakyeon fell asleep. It was a fitful sleep—sleeping on a rocking train was difficult—but the dreams didn't help. 

Hakyeon was in the jungle. It was the middle of the night, and the rain poured down around him. He was running. Running from what? He didn't know. But his heart was pounding in his chest, his hair was wet and dripping into his eyes. It stuck to his forehead. All he could hear above the sound of the rain was his breathing and the occasional boom of thunder. 

He ran. He ran and ran until he thought his lungs were going to burst right out of his chest in protest. Suddenly, Hakyeon stepped out of the jungle into a clearing and slid to an abrupt stop. Two massive dragons were fighting. In the dark and through the rain it was hard to see where they were going, and Hakyeon dove out of the way suddenly when a flash of lightning illuminated the clearing just in time for him to see one of the dragon's back claws coming down right on top of him. The lightning flashed again and Hakyeon saw the larger of the two dragons was a red, and the other was... black?! 

The dragons continued to fight, illuminated by the lightning. It was a terrible sight—the dragons were completely savage, tearing at and biting one another. The red dragon would try to breathe fire, but the rain and obvious exhaustion only allowed it to produce a weak flame. The black dragon didn't seem to have that problem as it hissed and spit caustic acid at the red dragon who roared deafeningly in pain. 

Hakyeon, scrambling through the mud, ran again. He ran right back into the jungle to find safety among the trees. But there was no safety there. He could hear clearly now the sounds of fighting all around him. Dragons all fighting one another. Roars of triumph and pain. Flashes of fire among the lightning. 

Panic washed over him. Hakyeon needed to leave, he had to get out of here right now. But he didn't know where to go, he didn't know which way would lead to safety. Hyperventilating, Hakeyon could feel himself loosing his grip on reality. And in his panic he tripped and fell, hitting his head. 

The dream changed then. Hakyeon was in bed. It was a platform bed, low to the ground. The shabby look of his blankets and the general disrepair of the room itself told him that this was definitely not his first choice of locations for his bedroom. Hakyeon sat up and immediately became dizzy. It passed after a moment, and he was able to slide off the bed and head for door. It opened to the outside, where the sun was shining and the breeze carried the scent of late summer flowers on it. His bedroom-building was built on the side of a hill, overlooking other buildings of similar size and general shape. Judging from appearances, whatever this place used to be, it was abandoned. No one had lived here or used these buildings in ages. 

A figure moving at the bottom of the hill drew Hakyeon's attention. It was a woman, dressed in white, and when she noticed Hakyeon standing there she lifted a hand in a wave. “ _Iayim!_ ” 

Hakyeon felt himself lifting a hand to return the wave, as the woman headed up in his direction. It didn't take her long to scale the gentle slope of the hill, and she stopped in front of him with an indignant sort of look on her face. “ _Iayim, kom naak mo jakkun!_ ”

She was pretty. Even if she was clearly cross with him for some reason or other, Hakyeon could see the fondness in her dark eyes. She had high, round cheeks and a overall soft face in general. She looked oddly familiar, but Hakyeon couldn't place her. 

“ _Kom naak mo jakkun._ ” she insisted again, turning Hakyeon around and nudging him back into the small building. Somehow Hakyeon understood that she wanted him to get back in bed, to rest more. 

He took one step towards the bed and the dream changed again.

The same woman was laying on the exam table in front of him, clearly in pain. Blue blood pooled at the corners of her mouth. Her eyes were glassy. But despite all of that, she tried to smile up at Hakyeon anyway. 

“She's not going to make it,” a voice behind him said. “Extensive internal bleeding.”

“ _Iayim,_ ” the woman whispered. Hakyeon shook his head. Iayim? She kept calling him that, but it wasn't his name. “ _Maag ua._ ” 

Hakyeon shook his head again and reached a hand out to take hers. But it wasn't his hand. His hand wasn't as big, his fingers weren't as lithe. 

And hadn't he heard the name Iayim somewhere else before? 

“I'm sorry. We've done all we can,” the voice behind Hakyeon said again. He ignored it.

“ _Maag ua._ ” The woman coughed on the blood in her throat. “ _Iayim._ ”

Hakyeon's eyes flew open. 

Taekwoon was still in the seat across from him, but something was clearly wrong. The dragon had curled up, as if attempting to make himself as small as possible. His fingers were twitching, grasping at invisible things Hakyeon couldn't see, his breathing was shallow and coming in quick pants. Taekwoon's eyes had become their solid yellow, and flicked this way and that; lost in a vision known only to him. Sweat shown on his forehead. Something had triggered Taekwoon, and he was having a panic attack. 

“ _Maag ua._ ” Taekwoon whimpered softly, to himself in a voice full of pain. 

Hakyeon realized then what happened. Taekwoon hadn't been able to keep a handle on himself while in this state and unintentionally broadcasted the things he was seeing and feeling out. Hakyeon was not dreaming during his fitful nap—he must have been living through Taekwoon's memories brought forward by his panic attack. But what caused this in the first place?

“Taekwoon,” he breathed in a voice barely above a murmur, and scrambled forward off of his seat to kneel on the carriage floor next to Taekwoon's seat in order for their faces to be level. There was no immediate response. 

Taekwoon's wandering eyes eventually caught sight of Hakyeon, hovering in front of him, and focused on him (though their solid color state made it difficult for Hakyeon to determine if Taekwoon was actually looking at him or not at first). The dragon's expression crumpled. “Why would you do this to me?” he asked mournfully, the tone of his voice laced with sadness from the apparent betrayal. 

Taken aback, Hakyeon leaned away and pressed a hand to his chest. “Me? I haven't done anything, I've been asleep!” 

“The mountains—” Taekwoon gasped.

Mountains? Hakyeon knelt up and looked out the window. There were some mountains in the distance, did he mean those? He glanced back to Taekwoon. “What are you talking about?”

“I said I didn't want to go!” 

The wail in Taekwoon's voice pierced Hakyeon's heart and he sat back on his heels, unable to move. Was this another of Taekwoon's memories? Something Hakyeon couldn't see?

Before anything further could be said, the door to their carriage slid open; Wonshik and Hongbin had returned. Neither one of them stepped in right away, the scene before them giving them pause. Hongbin was the first to regain his footing, as it were, and the bronze dragon merely reached to grab Hakyeon and pull him bodily into the narrow hallway. Without a word, Hongbin stepped around the two humans and shut the carriage door behind him. 

“What the hell was that?” Wonshik asked as he turned to Hakyeon after a couple heartbeats of silence passed between them. 

“I don't know,” Hakyeon replied, voice soft. “Something's wrong with Taekwoon.”


End file.
